Modern Science and Man's View of Moral Values

Sun Myung Moon
November 21, 1973
The Second International Conference on the Unity of the Sciences

Sun Myung Moon delivering Modern Science and Man's View of Moral Values

May I extend my heartfelt congratulations on the very successful Second International Conference on the Unity of the Sciences where today's great scientists are present. I feel greatly honored to have the opportunity of making some brief remarks at the close of this conference held in the most modern city of the Orient -- Tokyo, Japan.

First of all, my deepest admiration and gratitude go to the eminent professors or the executive committee who rendered such painstaking efforts to · hold the conference and make it a success. Please allow me to express my profound respect and appreciation to this committee, who decided to adopt the subject of "Modern Science and Moral Values" as the theme of the conference, and especially to the professors who in response to the invitation have deeply researched on the respective topics that have been brought forth and discussed with positive enthusiasm.

Once again, I want to extend my deepest congratulations to and appreciation of this epoch-making conference. I am going to express my views about the theme under the topic of "Modern Science and Man's View of Moral Values." I suppose that the conference adopted and handled the question of science and moral values because the situation in today's society urgently demands the handling of such issues which, I am sure, have been thoroughly discussed. I think not only myself but also many other people have the impression that modern science now shows undesirable side effects even though it has so far contributed tremendously to promote the welfare of mankind with unceasing and outstanding development. As I see it, men of today are losing their subjectivity over science and it looks as though man's ability to control scientific technology, which he himself has developed, is gradually being weakened. If this situation persists it would be difficult for us to guarantee against any undesirable situation which may arise in the near future.

The reason for man's loss of subjectivity is that science, by nature, is apt to allow scientists to exclude the questions of humanity and man's moral values in the process of scientific development. As time elapsed, science has gradually fractionalized with each field becoming more and more specialized, inclining to be more analytical and materialistic, utterly ignoring the questions of morality or values. Thus, man's subjectivity and dominion over science began to be either weakened or lost. I am sure it is not erroneous to think that out of many possible motivations of scientific research the ultimate and most important one is no doubt to realize man's common welfare-prosperity and peace. Nevertheless, as the fields of science become more subdivided and the methods more analytical, its development deviated from the right direction which is towards a state of moral value in which man's common welfare can be guaranteed. Men originally expected and anticipated the common welfare and happiness of man, who is in the subject position over the environment. But on the contrary, scientific achievements have so far resulted in the improvement and development of the environment and new means of life which are in the object position to man. That is to say, while man's original desire was for science to achieve the welfare of man who is the subject, scientific achievements have appeared as the improvement and development of the environment which is the object. This unconformity and discrepancy between man's desire and scientific achievement finally caused the weakening or loss of man's subjectivity. However, it is desirable for science to deal with the question of man's subjectivity as well as the objective problems such as the improvement of the environment and the development of the means of life. My ardent wish is that all scientists develop their respective fields on the basis of a solid view of moral values thus exalting human dignity by adopting also the spiritual and unified method as well 1s the materialistic and analytical one. If we had created the climate of science centered on human dignity the formidable problem of pollution would have been prevented.

Here arises the question of man's original image, that is, man's nature. My view is that man's original image is the harmonious oneness between his mind and body. The original man should be a being of unity and harmony between his spirit and body centered on the purpose of goodness or value. I view the original character of science as embodying in unity the two sides of spirit and physical resembling man. This means that science should assume a unified character dealing also with the field of moral value. It may be appropriate to call this synthesized science "Cultural Science." However, in order for science to handle this view of moral value, another question of what should be the standard of value appears. In general, the standard of value has changed according to age and environment. There is a vast difference between the standard of value in the ancient times and that of the modern age. And again the standard of value in the Orient differs from that of the Occident. Therefore, to establish a true standard of value for the common benefit and welfare of all mankind we cannot but set up as the standard some universal and absolute element that can apply at anytime and anyplace. The establishment of this absolute standard signifies the establishment of a new view of moral value. The essence of this' absolute standard should be the love which makes the basis of the ethics of the family system. This is because the true love in the ethical relationship of the family is an absolute love- agape love-which emits heartwarming joy to all mankind just as the sun emits it light to all creation. And this love alone has never changed through history whether in the East or West. At this point we can think of the one absolute being who is the only subject of this absolute love. I believe it is most desirable for this absolute being to become the "ultimate standard of the new view of value.

In my view, this Absolute Being is not at all any conceptual being but rather a substantial entity which has hitherto revealed Himself throughout human history. We know that in history many sages and saints including so many religious leaders have appeared in different times and in different places. These people, without exception, appealed to the human conscience and heart urging the practice of love. When men responded and followed their teachings the people and nations enjoyed peace and prosperity but when they were obstinate they fell into confusion or decline. Even today the whole of mankind is in confusion and chaos waiting either consciously or unconsciously for the appearance of modern sages and saints to realize this love. All these facts signify that history has developed in the direction to realize the love. Therefore we cannot but realize that in history there has been one central axis functioning consciously in a certain direction. I want to define this substantial being who has played the role of the axis as the "Absolute Being." We can see that behind the scenes of human history this Absolute Being has planned to establish the world of moral values by actualizing the love through the saints, righteous men and conscientious leaders.

Accordingly, my conclusion is that if the whole of mankind will accept this Absolute Being as the axis of human history the world of moral values will be realized without difficulty. Lastly, I extend my heartfelt wishes that the wonderful presentation of the research and discussions at this conference will produce epoch-making results to contribute to the true peace and prosperity of mankind.

On Leadership

Sun Myung Moon
November 9, 1973
Atlanta Directors Conference
Translator: Won Pok Choi

A "leader" means a central figure. If you are in the center, playing the role of the central figure, you must not be inclined to one side or the other. The central figure will decide the balance of all those placed in different directions. In order for you to be able to keep that balance, you as the central figure must stand up straight and balance yourself. You must be like an upright tree. If the trunk is straight, the branches extending to every direction will be well balanced. And the roots are also affected. So in a word, you must not be inclined to just one side: you must keep good balance.

You will be getting information from all directions, so you must not be too attentive to one side and neglect what is coming from the other side. You must be good listeners, and you must be able to analyze and criticize in the best way. You must be good listeners so that you can judge correctly.

Those who are under your leadership will live or die dependent upon one word coming from you. However unhealthy a branch may be, it should shoot out towards heaven, towards the sky; so you must nourish those under you well. In order for you to be entitled to scold the people under you once, you must appreciate ten things they are doing right, and then point out two or three things they are lacking. If you just strike them for what they have not done right, they will be broken.

Again, I must say that you are the trunk of the tree. Over many things, you are the one who must be responsible. Seen from that standpoint, we must sincerely say that anyone who is in the leader's position does not exist for himself. You are apt to dwell on your authority as the leader. However, the authority of the leader must not be set up by you yourself, but by those people under you. If you think of yourself as powerful and authoritative, that is not the right feeling. You must rely on others, your members; it is they who must think of you as a powerful, authoritative leader.

Actions, words, and heart consistent

The people around you or under you will highly esteem your power because of your deeds, your utterances, and your heart. There must not be a difference between what you say and what you do. In speaking, too, you must not speak of two things at the same time. You must not be saying two opposite things. Those three heart, action, and words- must be in accordance with each other.

You are the trunk, and you must have the branches as close as possible to the trunk. If you don't carry out your mission as you are instructed, it is because you have your branches scattered. The branch tips must be headed for heaven, the sky. In order for you to grow, you must have nourishment from the soil and from the air. The roots will absorb the nourishment from the soil, and the leaves must absorb the nourishment from the air, sunlight, and everything else. The roots represent your members; the leaves mean spiritual resources. So without those helps coming from above and beneath, you cannot stand up straight and be well-nourished and healthy.

Leaders are in a more or less dreadful position. I as the leader have sometimes been afraid of my being apt to commit mistakes. However authoritative and powerful I may be, if I don't get the balance from beneath and from above with myself in the center, my work will be a failure. For instance, I always prepare before going out to the platform to speak.

I have gone through many speeches by now, so I know the contents by heart. But the most difficult and important problem is how to be one with my words and how to be one with God in heart. I want to be truthful in uttering the words. When I do that, my spirit goes out to the audience, projecting that same spirit to the hearts of the people. Nothing will come into being without a cause. You must be enthusiastic, you must be full of heart in giving words to the people, or else your words cannot move their hearts. You will see how important your words are.

God stands before you

If the listeners are attentive to what you say and absorb your words, it will change their lives. But you must take responsibility about what you say. If you don't have God standing before you, whatever you say will be a failure. But if you have God standing before you, then you will be the spokesman through whom God can speak. Then what you say will be fruitful, and if it is going to be a failure, then God will take the responsibility for that, and not you. If you speak with the heart of God, even though your utterances may be a stumbling block to the people, you will not bear the responsibility- heaven will do that.

If you as the leader speak out, and you forget that you are the instrument through whom God is speaking, what you say will sometimes be fruitful, but mostly it will not be fruitful. And in the latter case, those who fail to receive the words will accuse you of your mistakes to eternity. If you are like that, however hard you may struggle to win members, you will fail to win them. And even though you win the members, they will fall away easily.

If you, as the leaders, are not able to carry out your mission, your descendants will be affected, too. So you are in a dreadful position. It is something like walking on razor blades. That is the position of the leaders. Whenever I have someone who says that he has something to inform me of, then I am worried. After hearing about something unsuccessful, I think that I might have caused that man to fall.

Invest yourself 100 percent

You must love and care for your members, and day and night you must be thinking of them, praying for them, and seeking to nurture them. God is the Center. And in leading the people, you are in the position of the center. The person in the center must be giving out all the time. You must invest your whole being 100 percent, and then you can expect a good outcome. Without giving to them, you cannot expect any crops from people. You may be without a penny. You may not have material things to give them, but you have heart. By giving your heart, you are not going to lose anything. You must always be conscious of your living for the members under you. So if you are given rich things to eat, you must be thinking of your members first; if you have good things to put on, you must be thinking of them first; and if you have a good place to sleep, you must be thinking of your members first.

After having long been a leader, you are apt to criticize people even though you do not carry out your own mission. You will easily order other people to do something, but you will not do things yourself.

But my philosophy is to do things myself, and then let others do them. The principle is simple: you sleep in a humbler place, you eat poorer things, and you wear poorer clothing. Leaders will have many opportunities to appear in public scenes, so your members will be considerate and have you put on good clothing and look nice. That is what your members should do for you, but you should not do it for yourself.

Be thankful to your members

Even in case what you are doing is successful, you must not be boastful of your being successful, because the success did not come because of you, but because of the members. You must be thankful to God and to the members for their cooperation. Without that notion in your mind, you cannot progress. You must hate to be indebted to your members, and you must endeavor to have them indebted to you. If you as the leader find yourself being indebted to the members, you must retreat from that position-that is far better.

If you go on like that in the same role, then God will strike you. You will be a failure, and you will feel disgraced before the members. If you are indebted to the members, you must repay it. That is why you must be running in the vanguard of all the rest of your family, and you must work harder than they, and you must have poorer things to enjoy. You cannot go on all by yourself, so you must get the cooperative power pushing you ahead.

In the Bible we read, "You shall love your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind." (Matt. 22:37) There is no commandment excelling that. It sounds simple. Whether you are indebted to others or have them indebted to you will decide your success or failure. First of all, you as the leader must give your members words. And you must show them the way. Then you must exemplify how to live, how to live the words, the truth. You must have your members always feeling like jotting down what you say. What you say should be so important to them that they feel like writing it down.

And you must be able to get the cooperation from your members because you ate working so hard they feel like helping you all the way. And you must have your members follow your example, because they feel you are always acting out what you say.

Dedicate gifts to God

The way I instruct my members is always this: when you are given a gift, don't touch it and think about it because you are apt to be not qualified enough to have it. In case you use it and take it for granted, then it is poisonous to you.

If the person who is giving you the gift has poured out 100 percent sincerity and love there, and you receive it with ten percent of that person's love, then the rest of the 90 percent will accuse you, and the heavenly fortune coming to you will retreat from you.

When you are given a gift, you must offer it, dedicate it to God first, and receive it back from Him. Always be conscious that the money is not for you, but for the public, for all the family. So if you have money, you must first of all use the money for the public purpose.

In using money for myself, I am very stingy. In order to take my members out, I would go to a restaurant, but otherwise I wouldn't. But when I use money for the public purpose, I am not stingy- I am generous.

The factories and many enterprises we have in Korea, even though the persons responsible for those factories would go to sleep early and get up late in the morning, I would go to sleep late and get up earlier than they. I would visit the place and instruct those people every day. The round trip between the Korean headquarters in Seoul and Sootaek-Ri takes three hours. I established the record of having visited three times a day. I would visit there once a day at least to those places; twice was very common. That is because I wanted to pour out my energy and heart into the business. Otherwise, if I am going to use the money coming out of the business, I am a thief.

Weep when speaking

In speaking, I am pouring out my heart to be planted in the hearts of others.

You must weep when you speak. I am using the interpreter, so it bars the way. But if I am speaking in English or Korean, there are many places where I have to weep. I must have the feeling of a man being drowned and asking for help -- I am that serious. Before going on the stage to speak, I prepare my heart instead of preparing the manuscript. So you can imagine how grave and serious I am when I talk.

If you are like that, cooperation will come from the heavenly side, and it will touch the hearts of your audience.

In giving speeches, don't just memorize and utter the words, but pour out the heart through the speech. If you are going to have people spellbound, you will sometimes yell and pour out your soul into the souls of the others. What you are doing is something like that, and it will penetrate the hearts of the listeners.

When I do this, the listeners will speechlessly fall back. Without cause, there will be no result. You as the cause must be powerful in order to influence the people. You are in the position of the subject. You are in the position of the center. And you must be ·:· all-zealous to carry out your mission. As the leader, how many times did you wake up early in the morning, earlier than other people and jump out of bed, and almost at the threshold you prayed before God that your faith that day would be fruitful? In the doorway, how many times have you been waiting for the people to come? Have you been working like that? You must imagine that there are many souls waiting for you to reach out to them, and you must be anxious to meet those people. You must remember the biblical verse, "Ask, and it will be given you, seek, and you will find, knock, and it will be opened to you." (Matt. 7:7)

Revelation in prayer

Without witnessing to as many people as you planned, how can you go to bed, lying down with easy hearts? You must not feel like going to bed in pajamas. In that case, I would sleep just as you are, with your clothes on. In beginning to pray, I would fall asleep, but I would never feel like getting into the bed. We cannot afford to relax like that. If you have new members, you must be praying hard for them, and then you will be given visions and dreams about them. And the next day you can tell them that they have such and such disadvantages, and things like that, and they will be awakened to the fact. Many times you will be able to predict things, and when you point out the fact that a person is thinking this or that in his heart, that person would be astonished and would ask you, "How do you know?" "When I prayed, I saw it." And he will be thankful that you are so concerned about him and take such care of him. In light of all these things, you must judge your own selves.

Wherever you are, wherever you go, you must be with God. You must have your God stand before you, and follow Him. It is a very difficult thing to be leaders. On the spiritual level, you are responsible over the lives of the 200 million population of the United States.

If you find a certain member, a certain element causing disharmony among the group, you must have the heart of the Father, and call the person in secret and take him out to one of the restaurants or to one of the theaters, and after giving him something good, then you talk with him and discuss the matter. Then he will come to like you, he will come to love you. You will be in the position of the parents. And wouldn't your children want to follow you wherever you go? You must create that kind of atmosphere in your family. You must be able to create that kind of feeling in the hearts of your members, so that they will like you from the bottom of their heart, and serve you from the bottom of their hearts.

Hard times expose poor qualities

Here is another important thing for you to carry out, to bear in mind: as the leader, when you hear something from A, you must not convey it to B. If one of your members has committed some mistakes, you must keep it to yourself, without publicizing it. It will defame your own family. When the family is defamed, the central figure, the leader, is always responsible, and must take the responsibility for that. In ordinary daily life, it will not be too conspicuous. But if you go on a trip, or if you are in a difficult situation together with the members, the members will find out whether or not you are a qualified leader right there. Especially on the international Mobil teams, when you have to pack and move about from place to place, then your disposition and your qualifications will become very conspicuous. Even the leaders will not like the idea of having to move about from place to place too often. If you don't like that, you must be sympathetic with the members. You must pray for them from the bottom of your heart. You must share the difficulties of your members, and you must console their hearts when they are in trouble. And you must encourage them, without just giving commands and scolding them or punishing them when they fail to do something.

In my prayer, I cling to Father that He give me strength to love my people, and if I am indebted to my members, I know that our movement will not progress further. I, as the leader of the group, must have the members indebted to me, not I to them. You must be cooperative among yourselves as the leaders first, and then have your members indebted to you instead of your being indebted to them. Creation is to invest your whole energy and whole being in those in the object position.

Nurture new ones like plants

If you have 40 to 100 members under you, you must at least be praying for three hours every morning for them. Have you done that? You must take care of them as you would your own children. In the night when you wake up, you must look around and cover them with blankets if they are uncovered. You should be nurturing them as carefully as though they were plants, using fertilizer or nourishments, and watering the plants; if you are not doing that, they will not grow properly.

For seven years from the early days of our movement, I wouldn't sleep at night. I would sit up the whole night nurturing the members and giving them truth to raise them. I wanted to sleep; I was tired. Still, I wouldn't. So many times I had a bleeding nose from exhaustion. Still, I would just talk on and on. My eyes would be reddened, and I could not look up at the sun in full daylight. If there is God at all, He could not but be sympathetic with me. And in the midst of all those difficulties, I would just think of the members and pray for them.

Those who are in the leader's position must play the role of servants to the rest of your family. Think of your own parents; they served you all the way. If you fail to do that as a leader, putting yourself in the position of parents, you cannot go on taking the job. But if you are a parent to them, you cannot but have your members increase.

You must at least pray three times a day: as soon as you get up in the morning, at noon somewhere in the day, and in the evening before going to bed. My way of praying is very simple: Let me sacrifice myself for these people, and let these people sacrifice themselves for the rest of the world. That is the contents of my prayer to God. Since my prayer is that way, and very ardent, I know that God will answer my prayer. So I am confident to talk to the people of the world that they should do the same. And in that case, I feel confident.

Unity among nations

We have got to make a good solid foundation in three years' time by mobilizing so many members from so many nationalities. That is what I have in mind. What we do and what is taking place within this three years' time will be recorded in the history of America. We are concentrating our battle in America, but from this beachhead, it will spread out to the whole world. During this period, if our members from all nationalities cannot be united in good harmony, then we cannot dream of making a world of oneness and harmony. The more members we have in our family, the more members from more nationalities we have in our family, the more difficult our job is going to be. So while our members are few in number, we must practice unity here. And if we quarrel among ourselves, it will be a tragedy.

There are European leaders here: the leaders from England, France, Italy, Holland, Germany, Austria. Well, what you will have done will be forever recorded in the history of our movement, and when you die, you must tell the story of how you fought to your descendants. You must be proud of your deeds in the past, or else you are going to be a failure, and you are going to be put to shame. When you leave your will to your descendants, you must show them your own example, and tell them that they must be loving all mankind, transcendent of national boundaries, as I have so far done. And out of your descendants will come world leaders, because they followed your example, your tradition. Then God will continue to send great personages in your lineage in the future generations to inherit what you have done. So you must know the importance, you must feel the importance of what you are doing.

The Future of Christianity, Part II

Sun Myung Moon
October 28, 1973

Last month we printed part I of "The Future of Christianity," given by Reverend Moon as part of his Day of Hope talks in New Orleans, Louisiana on October 28, 1973. Part I analyzed the meaning of the "Last Days" and the "end of the world, "pointing to a separation of good and evil and a time of judgment by God's word. In Part II, Reverend Moon explained the mission of Jesus and the nature of the second coming.

What would have happened if the people of Israel had wholeheartedly accepted Jesus Christ? Imagine the nation of Israel united with Jesus. What would that have meant? First of all, Jesus would not have been killed. People would have glorified Jesus as the living Lord. They would have then marched to Rome with the living Christ as their Commander-in-chief, and Rome would have surrendered to the Son of God in his own lifetime. But in the sad reality of history, it took four centuries for a band of Jesus' disciples to conquer Rome. Jesus never won the chosen people of Israel, and he never gained the support he needed from them. He came to erect the kingdom of God on earth, but instead he had to caution his disciples even to keep his identity a secret because people did not accept his legitimacy as the Messiah, and he therefore lacked the power to be the King of kings.

Today we have much to learn, and we must not believe blindly. We must know the hidden truth behind the Bible. Jesus was crucified, not by his own will, but by the will of others. The faithlessness of the chosen people of Israel killed Jesus Christ. Right now I am making a bold declaration. Jesus did not come to die. Jesus Christ was murdered. Let me repeat: Jesus Christ was murdered, and his own people killed him. Even the Roman governor Pilate wanted to release Jesus. He did not find any fault with Jesus. But Christ's own people rejected him and forced Pilate to release Barabbas instead. What a pity! What a tragedy!

This may be shocking and astounding news to you, but if you are only surprised, then you have missed my purpose. I am revealing these things because of my duty to bear witness to the truth.

It was the chosen people of Israel, the chief priests, the elders, the scribes, and the faithful, who shouted at Pilate's court, "Crucify him!" St. Paul said, "None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory." (I Cor. 2:8)

The crucifixion of Jesus was a result of the faithlessness of the Jewish people. If Jesus had come to die, then he would not have offered that tragic and anguished prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus said to his disciples:

"My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me." And going a little farther, he fell on his face and prayed, "My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt." (Matt. 26:37)

Jesus prayed this way not just once, but three times. If death on the cross had been the fulfillment of God's will, Jesus would certainly have prayed instead, "Father, I am honored to die on the cross for your will."

Why Jesus was sorrowful

But Jesus prayed asking that this cup pass from him. If his prayer came out of fear of death, such weakness would disqualify him as the Son of God. We have witnessed the courageous death of many martyrs throughout Christian history and even elsewhere -- people who not only overcame their fear of death, but made their final sacrifice a great victory. Out of so many martyrs, how could Jesus alone be the one to show his fear and weakness, particularly if his crucifixion was the glorious moment of his fulfillment of the will of God? Jesus did not pray this way from weakness. To believe such a thing is an outrage to Jesus Christ.

The prayer of Jesus at the Garden of Gethsemane did not come from his fear of death or suffering. Jesus would have been willing and ready to die a thousand times over if that could have achieved the will of God. He agonized right up to the moment of death, and he made one final plea to God, because he knew his path would only cause the prolongation of God's dispensation.

Jesus wanted to live and fulfill his mission. It is a tragic misunderstanding to believe that Jesus prayed for a little more earthly life out of the frailness of his human soul. Young Nathan Hale, in the American struggle for independence, was able to say at the time of his execution, "I regret that I have but one life to give for my country!" Do you think Jesus Christ was a lesser soul than Nathan Hale? No! Nathan Hale was a great patriot. But Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

Think this over. If Jesus came to die on the cross, would he not need a man to deliver him up? You know that Judas Iscariot is the disciple who betrayed Jesus. If Jesus fulfilled God's will with his death on the cross, then Judas should be glorified as the man who made the crucifixion possible. Judas would have been aiding God's dispensation. But Jesus said of Judas, "The Son of man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born." (Matt. 26:24) Judas killed himself.

Furthermore, if God had wanted His son to be crucified, He did not need 4,000 years to prepare the chosen people. He would have done better to send Jesus to a tribe of barbarians, where he could have been killed even faster and the will of God would have been realized more rapidly.

I must tell you again, it was the will of God to have Jesus Christ accepted by his people. That is why God labored in hope and anguish to prepare fertile soil for the heavenly seed of the Messiah. That is why God established His chosen people of Israel. That is why God sent prophet after prophet to awaken the people of Israel to ready themselves for the Lord.

God warned them and chastised them; He persuaded them and scolded them, pushed them and punished them because He wanted His people to accept His Son. One day the disciples asked Jesus, "'What must we do, to be doing the works of God?' Jesus answered them, 'This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.'" (John 6: 28-29) The chosen people of Israel did the very thing God had labored to prevent. They rejected the one He had sent.

The purpose of Jesus' ministry

Jesus had one purpose throughout the three years of his public ministry: Acceptance. He could not fulfill his mission otherwise. From the very first day, he preached the gospel without equivocation, so that the people could hear the truth and accept him as the Son of God. The word of God should have led them to accept him. However, when Jesus saw that the people were not likely to receive him by the words of God alone, he began to perform mighty works. He hoped that people could recognize him through his miracles.

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name. (John 20: 30-31)

Jesus gave sight to the blind and made the lepers clean. He healed the lame and blessed the deaf with hearing. Jesus raised the dead. He did these things only because he wanted to be accepted. Yet the people said of him, "It is only by Beelzebub, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons." (Matt. 12:24) What a heartbreaking situation! Jesus soon saw the hopelessness of gaining the acceptance of the people. In anger and desperation he chastised them: "You brood of vipers!" (Matt. 12:34) He did not hide his wrath, but exploded in anger. "Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes." (Matt. 11:21) And he wept when he drew near the city of Jerusalem.

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killing the prophets and stoning those who are sent to you! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not! (Matt. 23:37)

Whoever understood this broken-hearted Jesus? He said, "Would that even today you knew the things that make for peace! But now they are hid from your eyes." (Luke 19:42) By that time Jesus knew there was absolutely no hope of avoiding death. Yet he pleaded with God in Gethsemane, and he pleaded with God on the cross: "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Matt. 27:46)

Thus Jesus died on the cross, not of his own will, not of the will of God, but by the will of men. Christ was destined to return from that moment on. He will return to consummate his mission on earth. Mankind must await his second coming for the complete salvation of the world.

Why two lines of prophecy?

Many people may now ask, "What about the prophecies of the Old Testament concerning the death of Jesus on the cross?" I am aware of those prophecies, such as Isaiah, Chapter 53. We must know that there are dual lines of prophecy in the Bible. One group prophesies Jesus' rejection and death; the others, such as Isaiah, Chapters 9, 11, and 60, prophesy the glorious ministry of Jesus when the people accepted him as the Son of God, as the King of kings. For example:

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government will be upon his shoulder, and his name will be called "Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David, and over his kingdom, to establish it, and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. (Is. 9:6-7)

This is the prophecy of the Lord of glory, Jesus as the King of kings, and Prince of Peace. On the other hand, we can read:

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with his stripes we are healed. (Is. 53:4- 8)

This is the prophecy of the suffering Christ. It is indeed the prophecy of the crucifixion. Then, once again, why did God prophesy in two contradictory ways in the Bible?

It is because God has to deal with men -- fallen men -- in His dispensation. And fallen man is wicked and untrustworthy and possesses the capacity of betrayal.

In a way God fears man, and Satan fears man also-because of man's ability to betray. God is absolute good, and He never changes His position; Satan is absolute evil, and he never changes his position either. In this respect God and Satan are similar. However, man is a mixture of good and evil. Man stands between God and Satan and has the ability to change. Therefore, man is unpredictable. One day a man may profess his untiring faith in God and desire to serve Him; and the next day the same man may curse God, unite with Satan and become his slave.

Since God did not know how man would respond to His providence for the Messiah, He had no choice but to predict two contradictory results-dual prophecies, each possible depending on man's actions. Thus the faith of man was the factor determining which one of the two prophecies would be fulfilled. In the case of Jesus, if the chosen people of Israel demonstrated faith and united with him, then he would be accepted. The full realization of the prophecy of the Lord of glory would result.

On the other hand, if the people were faithless and rejected the Messiah when he came, inevitably the second prophecy, that of the suffering Christ, would be fulfilled. And history shows that the chosen people took the second way. Therefore, the prophecy of the suffering Lord became reality instead of the prophecy of the Lord of glory. Thus the crucifixion and the story of the suffering Christ became the course of history.

Since the prophecy of the suffering Christ became fact in the time of Jesus, the prophecy of the Lord of glory has been left unfulfilled. And this is the prophecy which will be fulfilled at the time of the Lord of the Second Advent.

Jesus was a misunderstood man. I would like to also observe that the Bible does not provide much record of the life of Jesus prior to his public ministry, except for the story of his birth and a few accounts of his childhood. Haven't you ever wondered why?

For thirty years Jesus lived in great rejection and humiliation. There were many events and circumstances which grieved and agonized Jesus. He was a truly misunderstood person-in his society and even among his own family. Nobody, absolutely nobody treated him as the Son of God. He was not even accorded the common respect due to any man. His society ridiculed him. God's heart was very deeply grieved by Jesus' life. It revealed just a glimpse of some of the situations of heartbreak and sorrow surrounding the manhood of Jesus, that obscure figure, the man of Nazareth, you would not only be shocked and stunned, but you would burst into tears of sorrow.

God did not wish mankind to know the tragedy, the heart-breaking reality of the humiliation of Jesus Christ. The death of Jesus was neither his will nor his fault. The death of Jesus was murder, and his body was taken by Satan. Our salvation in Christianity comes not from the cross but from the resurrection.

Without the resurrection, Christianity has no power. The crucifixion itself was a criminal act off faithlessness. However, the resurrected Jesus brought new hope, new forgiveness, and a new power of salvation. Therefore, when we place our faith in Jesus Christ of resurrection and unite with him, our salvation comes.

Please ask seriously in your prayers for a final answer on these matters. Ask either Jesus Christ or God Himself. If Jesus had lived and fulfilled his primary mission of bringing the kingdom of God on earth, Christianity would never have been what it is today. The purpose of Jesus' coming was for the salvation of the world. The Jewish people were to be God's instruments. However, salvation was not intended only for God's chosen people. For every soul upon the face of the earth, Jesus is the savior. He is the savior of all mankind. Since Jesus left his mission uncompleted, he also left us the promise of his Second Coming.

Then let us examine when the end of the world will come. This is very important to us. The gospel says that in the last days God will separate the sheep from the goats. What is the difference between these two kinds of animals? Sheep recognize their master, the shepherd, while goats do not follow a shepherd.

Today you know that our world is divided into two opposing camps. One is the democratic world, the other is the Communist world. Our free world says, "There is a God." We accept our shepherd. The Communist world says, "God does not exist." They deny their master. Thus the free world may be symbolized by sheep, and the Communist world by goats. At the time of the formation of these two conflicting ideological worlds we can know we have come to the end of the world.

How will the Lord of the Second Advent come? Our position as Christians exactly parallels the position of the elders, scribes and priests at the time of Jesus. In those days, the people were waiting for Elijah and the Messiah to arrive in the clouds of heaven. Why did the people think this way? Why did they hold this kind of belief?

Will the Lord come with the clouds?

They were simply following the Bible prophecy written down in Daniel 7:13: "I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him." Because of the great prophet Daniel, the people of Israel had every reason to expect the arrival of the Messiah with the clouds of heaven. Christians are expecting the arrival of the Lord of the Second Advent in the same way today, from the clouds of heaven.

John said, "Many deceivers have gone out into the world, men who will not acknowledge the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh; such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist." (II John 7) The Bible says that many people were denying the appearance of Jesus Christ in the flesh. And Joho condemned those people as the antichrist. But let us not forget the Old Testament prophecy of the coming of the Son of God in the clouds of heaven. Unless we know the whole truth, we, like the people of Jesus' time, become victims of the words of the Bible.

Then, may I ask, what would you do if the Lord returned to earth not in the clouds but as a man in the flesh? What would you do? I am telling you, the Lord of the Second Advent will in fact appear as a son of man with flesh and bones. The first thing you may want to say is "Rev. Moon, you are a heretic."

It is important to know on which side God will be and how God fulfills His plan. It is not important whether a man or his views are considered heretical or not. It does not matter how I look at the world or how you look at the world. It only matters how God looks at the world. And in God's view, we once again find in the Bible a dual prophecy concerning the coming of the Lord of the Second Advent. Revelation 1:7 definitely prophesies the arrival of the Lord of the Second Advent with the clouds. However, I Thess. 5:2 states: "For you yourself know well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night." There are then two opposing prophecies. What shall we do? Would you simply choose the prophecy which is most convenient for you?

Perhaps the Lord will appear with a loud noise in the clouds of heaven, because the prophecy says so. But on the other hand, the Lord may appear like a thief in the night. If he comes in the clouds, he surely cannot slip into the world unseen like a thief. Tremendous attention would surround the spectacle of his coming in the clouds. I cannot imagine how such a thing could be hidden from your eyes.

Find out the truth from God

Then just what is the truth? We have a crucial question before us. What is the truth? When you see the signs of the Last Days, the Bible urges you to go into a dark room and pray. Who can tell you the time of the Last Days? The angels do not know that day. Jesus said not even the Son of man knew when that day would arrive. Only God knows the time of the Last Days. That is why we have our answer from God. I am not saying you must believe me-not at all. I am just revealing what I know to be the truth, but you must verify this truth with God.

In the Last Days, the Bible says, do not just believe anybody. Do not believe me, and do not believe your church elders. Do not believe your ministers, and do not believe famous evangelists. Heaven is so near, and you can be lifted up by the spirit so high, that you can speak with God and receive the answer directly from Him if you are earnest enough.

There are many ministers in New Orleans, many clergymen and many church elders. How many of them are really listening for the voice of God? These ears of ours do not mean much, nor these eyes serve any useful purpose, unless we have spiritual ears and spiritual eyes. Jesus said, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." (Matt. 11:15) And he said to his disciples, "But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear." (Matt. 13:16) He was not referring to physical sense organs.

When you use your spiritual senses and listen for the word of God, you will find His direction and guidance. But it is riot easy to become a citizen of the kingdom of heaven. It is very difficult for a foreigner to become just a citizen of the United States. How much more difficult it is to remove ourselves from our earthly life and transfer ourselves into the kingdom of heaven. But we can achieve this very thing.

We know that even after Adam and Eve fell in the Garden of Eden, they were still able to communicate directly with God. Do you think that after the days of the Old and New Testaments, God has for some reason become deaf and dumb? No, God is very much alive, and today we can talk directly to Him. God can speak to you, and you can have a direct confrontation with Him.

The book of Acts of the Apostles says that in the Last Days, "Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams." (Acts 2:17) We must know the truth. We have to know how to apply for citizenship into the kingdom of God. We have to know when the Lord will come, and how he will arrive. Even with clear guidance in our lives, there is still the chance of failure to reach the goal. But today we have no guidance, and no direction we feel confident to follow.

Let us look to our Bible and clarify how the Lord of the Second Advent will appear. In Luke 17:20-21, Jesus was asked by the Pharisees how the kingdom of God was coming. He answered, "The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed;... the kingdom of God is in the midst of you." Jesus then told his disciples, "The days are coming when you will desire to see· one of the days of the Son of man, and you will not see it." But if the Lord comes in the clouds of heaven, how could we not see it? Revelation 1:7 says, "Every eye will see him, everyone who pierced him."

What can this mean? Why would we not see him? The only way we might miss that day is if we look for the Lord to come from one direction, and he appears from another direction in an entirely unexpected manner, just as Elijah did at the time of Jesus. This is the reason you may not see the Lord at the time of his Second Coming.

The Lord will be rejected. Another mysterious prediction was given by Jesus Christ himself. He declared about the Lord at the Second Coming: "But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation." (Luke 17:25) If Christ at his Second Coming appears in the glory of the clouds of heaven, who would dare deny him? Nobody would cause him suffering and pain.

The only way this prophecy can be fulfilled is if people expect his return from the clouds and he suddenly appears as a humble man in the flesh. Do you not think that Christian leaders of today would mare the same mistake that the priests and scribes and elders committed at the time of Jesus? Yes! They may very well deny him and reject him, because the manner of his coming would be very difficult for Christian leaders to accept. However, in this way the Bible will be fulfilled. He will first suffer and be rejected by this generation.

Jesus once asked a most important question: "When the Son of man comes, will he find faith on earth?" (Luke 18:8) How does this question concern us today, when Christian faith covers the face of the earth? It is because although we do have faith today, it may be mistaken faith-a belief which expects the Lord must come on the clouds of heaven. There are few men on earth with the kind of faith ready to accept the Son of man even appearing in the flesh. If this were not the situation, the Bible would not be fulfilled. Please note that Jesus did not say there would be no believers, but he said there would be no faith.

Jesus also said,

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, lord, did \li e not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you evildoers.'" (Matt. 7:22-23)

This prophecy cannot be realized if his Second Coming is on the clouds of heaven.

At the time of the Second Advent, people will be again crying out, "Lord, lord." At the same time they may be in the process of trying to crucify the Lord of the Second Advent himself if he appears in a manner different from their own expectations. They will then be the worst evildoers.

This is the Bible. Those who truly have eyes will see. Those who truly have ears will hear. Throughout history, God has sent His prophets before the time of fulfillment. He warns the people of His plan. No matter how devout Christian faith is today, no matter how many millions of people are in the Christian churches, they and their churches and their world will be doomed to decline once they fail to accept the Lord, however he may appear. This was the tragic fate of the people of Israel when they denied Jesus Christ, regardless of their righteousness otherwise.

We must therefore also be open to a new message. Jesus Christ did not come to repeat the Mosaic Law. Just as Jesus revealed himself with the new truth, the Lord of the Second Advent will reveal himself with God's new truth for our time. That truth will not be simply a repetition of the New Testament.

The Lord comes to restore God's ideal

The Lord will not appear miraculously in the clouds of heaven. Why? Because God is sending His Son to restore the things that once were lost. The first ancestors lost the kingdom of God on earth. Satan invaded the world and took Eve to his side, and then Eve took Adam away, leaving God alone and separated from man. All mankind has therefore suffered under the bondage of evil. God must send a new ancestor for humanity, to begin a new history.

The work of God is restoration, always in the opposite direction from His original loss. This means that God first needs to find His perfected Adam, an Adam who instead of betraying God will become one with God. And then Adam must restore his bride in the position of Eve. Perfected Adam and perfected Eve, united together, will be able to overcome Satan and expel him from the world. In this way, the first righteous ancestors of mankind will begin a new history.

God's first beginning was alpha. This was invaded by evil, so He will restore the world in omega. Jesus is referred to as the Second Adam in I Cor. 15:45. God wanted to bless Adam and Eve in marriage when they were perfected. As a heavenly couple, they could bear children of God. This life was not realized in the Garden of Eden. That is why Jesus came in the position of Adam. God intended to find the true bride and have Jesus marry. The True Parents of mankind would have begun in the time of Jesus, and they could have overcome and changed the evil history of the world. Since that hope was not fulfilled by Jesus, after 2,000 years he is returning to earth as a man to complete in full the mission he only partially accomplished. The kingdom of heaven on earth will be established at that time.

The new history of goodness will thus begin. With the truth of God and True Parents for mankind, a new alpha in God's history will begin and continue for eternity. The ideal of God is to restore the first God centered family on earth. With this one model as a center, all the rest of mankind can be adopted into this family. We will become like them, and the first heavenly family will be expanded, multiplying into the tribal, national, and worldwide kingdom of God on earth.

The kingdom of heaven is to be literal and tangible. Jesus gave Peter the keys to the kingdom of heaven and said, "Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." (Matt. 16:19) So accomplishment on earth must precede fulfillment in heaven; the kingdom of heaven will be first achieved on earth. At this time only an intermediate place in the spirit world is open. That is called "Paradise." Jesus and his disciples dwell in Paradise, and even they cannot actually enter the kingdom of heaven until it is established on earth. One reason for this is because the kingdom of heaven is prepared not for individuals, but for the family of God-for the father, the mother, and God's true children.

Therefore, the promise of the Lord of the Second Advent will be fulfilled. He is destined to come to earth as the Son of man in the flesh. He comes as the third Adam. He will take a bride and thereby bring about the most joyful day of heavenly matrimony, referred to as "the marriage supper of the Lamb" in the book of Revelation. He will fulfill the role of True Parents. True ancestry from God will be established and heaven on earth can then be literally achieved.

The Future of Christianity, Part I

Sun Myung Moon
October 28, 1973

'The Future of Christianity" was one of the three themes of Reverend Sun Myung Moon's 21-city tour of the United States beginning in New York in October 1973 and ending in Los Angeles in January 1974. This speech was given in New Orleans, Louisiana on October 28. His interpreter, Mr. Bo Hi Pak writes: "Thank almighty God that I can serve in even a small way in presenting His declaration of truth, which He is revealing through Rev. Sun Myung Moon. This truth has value unparalleled in human history. We now have the means to heal all modern-day human problems, exalt every soul, and bring the kingdom of God within the reach of every man. "

I would like for you and me to spend this time together in open-mindedness so that the spirit of God can speak directly into our hearts. Jesus taught in his Sermon on the Mount: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. (Matt. 5:3, 5, 6)

Tonight I humbly ask you to be the poor in spirit; I ask you to be the meek, and I ask you to become those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Then we will all see the kingdom of heaven, and we shall all be satisfied. Now let us begin.

Christians, and Christianity itself, have a final hill to cross. Biblical prophecy states that Christians must pass through the end of the world and face the judgment of fire at the great and terrible day of the Lord. The Bible says we are going to see many extraordinary phenomena, in heaven and on earth, as the end comes near.

Tonight we must clarify the meaning of the end of the world as the Bible prophesies it. We should first of all understand that God did not create the world to end. He always intended the world of goodness to last forever. The God who does not create for eternity cannot be an almighty God. The present world must end, however, because the fall of man initiated a history of evil. The end of the world is necessary because we have not achieved God's intended world of goodness. Instead of becoming children of goodness, we have in reality become creatures of evil.

Adam and Eve fell in the Garden of Eden. They were not at that time in a position to have a clear understanding of the will of God. They entered into a state of confusion and made the wrong choice. They were confronted with either obedience to God, which would have brought about the good world, or obedience to Satan, which did in fact bring about their fall. Between two clear choices, Adam and Eve made the wrong one. They brought evil into the world. God's original intention was to create His ideal world-a good and prosperous world He determined to last for eternity. But man fell, the good world of God ended abruptly, and human history started in the wrong direction. The history of mankind is therefore a history of evil. God sowed good seed, and He intended to harvest a good crop. But Satan stole His crop before it was ripened and reaped a harvest of evil. Human history is a crop of weeds.

The end of evil

Then what does the end of the world mean? Just what is going to end? Evil is going to end. God will put an end to all evil. Out of God's new beginning will come a new opportunity for man. And the goodness God intended in His original ideal can be made real.

In the Garden of Eden man fell into evil instead of developing his goodness. Man was subjugated by Satan and became the child of sin. Therefore the Bible says, "You are of your father the devil." (John 12:31) If the fall of man had not occurred, then the true ruler would be God. But He is not today tie King of this universe, because Satan is sitting upon God's throne. God has to remove all results of the fall of man before He can truly reign over the world.

Now I will give you clearly the definition of the end of the world. The end of the world is the moment in history when God ends evil and begins His new age. It is the time of the cross-junction between the old history of evil and the new history of good. In light of this definition, why does the bible predict extraordinary heavenly phenomena as signs of the end of the world? Will the things predicted really occur? The Bible says:

Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the power of the heavens will be shaken. (Matt. 24:29)

What does this mean? What are we to expect?

First of all, please rest assured that these things will not happen literally. God will not destroy anything in the universe. God often expresses His truth in symbols and parables, and these Biblical sayings will be accomplished symbolically.

Secondly, God has no reason to destroy the universe. It is not the universe, but man who has committed sin. Only man deviated from the original plan of God's creation. Why should God destroy the animals, or the plants, or anything in creation which fulfilled His purpose as He intended? God would not destroy those innocent things. The Bible therefore says, "Generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever." (Eccl. 1:4) But in Revelation we read: "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away." (Rev. 21:1) That new heaven and new earth refers to the coming of the new history of God, a time of new dominion. After you buy a house, won't you move in your family and possessions? Then you will say that you have a new home, and you are the new master of the house. In the same way, when men of God occupy this universe, it will become a new heaven and a new earth.

Gradual change

We know that when winter ends, spring begins. But can we say at precisely what point spring starts? Who can pinpoint the exact instant of transition? You cannot know because the passage into new history. Our step into new history is like a glorious dawn emerging out of the blackest night. The crossing point between good and evil is not obvious. You will not notice it when it happens, but it will definitely take place, just as surely as the sun will rise tomorrow.

Then how can we know when the end is approaching? God will not hide this moment from man; He does not suddenly bring judgment on the world without warning. God will announce the coming of the great and terrible day through his prophets. Amos 3:7 says, "Surely the Lord does nothing, without revealing his secrets to his servants the prophets." God chooses His instrument and through him God announces His plans. This has been the case throughout Bible history.

God needs a man of faith

The person to be chosen as God's prophet must be one of the people living in our evil world. But he must be a man of faith who can demonstrate that he is worthy to be used by God. He must show absolute faith. To do this he must give up all worldly success and completely separate himself from this evil world. He must purify himself by cutting off all evil attachments. He will not be popular in the evil world. God is absolute good and therefore the exact opposite of evil. That is why evil always persecutes a man of God.

Noah was such a man chosen by God and scorned by the evil world. God instructed Noah to build a ship. He sent Noah to the heights of a mountain instead of down by the riverside or to the seashore. God's command was so ridiculous in the eyes of the evil world that many people laughed at Noah. He was ridiculed, not because people thought him a particularly funny man, but because he followed God's instructions so faithfully. The eyes of the world could not understand the way of God. In this manner, with such implausible instructions, God could test the faith of the man he had chosen as His champion. This is what happened in Noah's day.

And at the time of Abraham it was no different. God called Abraham, the son of an idol-maker, and commanded him, "Leave your home at once!" God does not allow for any compromise. God takes a position where evil can be totally denied. In no other way can good begin. God has said He will start a new history, in which no element of evil will remain. God demands complete response from man. Those who follow God's direction must begin from absolute denial of the evil world. That is why Jesus Christ taught: "He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find it." (Matt. 10:39) He also said, "A man's foes will be those of his own household." (Matt. 10:36)

God's path is not easy

You may ask, what kind of message is this? This is God's way, to choose His own people and put them in a position where they will be rejected by evil. Otherwise His champion can do no good for God. From the point of view of God's standard, then, modern Christians have been having a very easy time. This is very strange, because there is no easy way indicated in Christian teaching. I wonder how many Christians are really serious about following the path of God? God's demand is absolute. If allows for no middle ground.

Then how can we know clearly the path of God? Let us examine the history of God's providence. Today we are anticipating the end of the world. God has made previous attempts to end the world. For example, the time of Noah: That was a crossroads in history, when God wanted to bring an end to evil and begin the world of goodness. Noah was the central figure chosen in God's dispensation. To better understand Noah's mission and the meaning of the end of the world, we want to know more fully how the evil history began.

In the Garden of Eden, God gave Adam and Eve a commandment. That commandment was the word of God. Then Satan approached and enticed them with a lie. And that lie was the word of evil. Adam and Eve were in a position to choose between the two words. The truth was on one side, and a lie was on the other. They chose the lie. Because this was the process of the fall of man, at the end of the world God will give mankind truth. The words of God will come through His prophet. When man accepts the words of God he will then pass from death to life, because truth brings life. Man has died in a lie, and in truth he will be reborn.

Therefore judgment comes by words

These words of God's judgment will be revealed by His chosen prophets. This is the process of the ending of the world. Those who obey and listen to the new word of truth shall have life. Those who deny the word will continue to live in death.

God chose Noah to declare the word. Noah's announcement was, "The flood is coming. The salvation is the ark." The people could have saved themselves by listening to Noah's words. However, the people treated Noah as if he were a crazy man, and they perished-because they opposed the word of God. According to the Bible, only the eight people of Noah's immediate family became passengers on the ark. Only these eight believed, and only these eight were saved.

God had said to Noah, "I have determined to make an end of all flesh; for the earth is filled with violence through them; behold, I will destroy them with the earth." (Gen. 6:13) Did this actually happen? We know the evil people perished, but was the physical world demolished in the process? No.

This passage was not literally fulfilled, and God did not destroy the earth. God did eradicate the people and destroy evil sovereignty, leaving only the good people of Noah's family. This was God's way to begin to restore the original world of goodness through Noah.

If God had fully consummated His restoration at that time, then we would have heard no more about the end of the world. Once the perfect world of goodness is realized, another end of the world is not necessary. Nothing could then interfere with the eternal reign of God's perfect kingdom.

But the very fact that we anticipate the end of the world today is proof that God did not succeed at the time of Noah. What happened to Noah after the flood should be fully explained, but I cannot spend too much time on that subject tonight. To make a long story short, once again, sin crept into Noah's family through his son, Ham. God's flood judgment was thereby nullified, and evil human history continued until the time of Jesus Christ.

The end of the world at Jesus' time

With the coming of Christ, God again attempted to end the world. Jesus came to start the new kingdom of heaven on earth. Thus, the first words Jesus spoke were, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Indeed, the time of Jesus Christ's ministry was the end of the world. That great and terrible day was prophesied by Malachi, about 400 years before the birth of Jesus:

For behold, the day comes, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evil-doers will be stubble; the day that comes shall burn them up, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. (Mal. 4:1)

Was the judgment of Jesus Christ done by literal fire? Did the day come at the time of Jesus when everything literally turned to ashes? No, we know it did not. Since these things prophesied did not literally happen at that time, some people say that such prophecy must have been meant for the time of the Second Advent. But this cannot be the case.

John the Baptist came to the world as the last prophet; Jesus said: "All the prophets and the law prophesied until John." (Matt. 11:13) The coming of John the Baptist should have put an end to prophecy and the Mosaic Law. This is what Jesus said would happen. The purpose of all prophecy before Jesus was to prepare for his coming, and to indicate what was to be fulfilled up to the time of his coming.

These prophecies are not for the time of the Lord of the Second Advent. God sent His son Jesus into the world, intending full and perfect salvation to be accomplished. The Second Coming was made necessary only by lack of fulfillment at the time of the first coming. Why then was the time of Jesus the end of the world? We already know the answer. It is because Jesus came to end evil sovereignty and bring forth God's sovereignty upon the earth. This was the end of the Old Testament Age and the beginning of the age of the New Testament. Jesus brought the words of new truth.

Jesus was rejected

How did the people receive the gospel which he brought? The Jewish faithful accused Jesus and crucified him. They were prisoners to the letter of the Old Testament and could not perceive the presence of the spirit of God in the new truth. It is ironic that Jesus fell victim to the very prophecies that were to testify to him as the Son of God. By the letter of the Mosaic Law he was judged a criminal. Blindly the people nailed him to the cross.

At the time of Jesus many learned people, many leaders of churches, and many people prominent in society who were well-versed in the Law and the prophets, were waiting for a Messiah. How happy they would have been to have their Messiah recite the Old Testament exactly, syllable by syllable and word by word! But Jesus Christ did not come to repeat the Mosaic Law. He came to pronounce a new law of God.

People missed the whole point. And Jesus was accused. The people of Israel said to him, "We stone you for no good work, but for blasphemy; because you, being a man, make yourself God." (John 10:33) The bible states: "And they reviled him [one of Jesus' disciples], saying, 'You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.'" (John 9:28-29) This was the way they looked at Jesus. Those people who diligently obeyed the letter of the Mosaic Law disobeyed Jesus Christ. The most devout of the Jewish faithful were the first ones to be judged by Jesus and thrown into unquenchable fire.

Fire judgment

Now at this time I would like to clarify the meaning of "judgment by fire." We read in the New Testament: "The heavens will be kindled and dissolved and the elements will melt with fire!" (II Peter 3:12) How can this fantastic prophecy come true? Will it happen literally? No. The statement has symbolic meaning. God would not destroy His earth, His stars and all creation without realizing His ideal on earth. If He did so, then God would become the God of defeat. And who would be His conqueror? It would be Satan. This can never happen to God.

Even on our human level, once we determine to do something, we see it through to its completion. How much more so will God almighty accomplish His will. When God speaks of judgment by fire in the Bible, He does not mean he will bring judgment by flames. The significant meaning is a symbolic one. Let us now consider another Biblical passage which speaks of fire. Jesus proclaimed, "I came to cast fire upon the earth; and would that it were already kindled!" (Luke 12:49) Did Jesus throw literal, blazing fire about? Of course not.

The fire in the Bible is symbolic. It stands for the word of God. This is why James 3:6 states, "The tongue is a fire." The tongue speaks the word, and the word is from God. Jesus himself said, "He who rejects me and does not receive my saying has a judge. The word that I have spoken will be his judge on the last day." (John 12:48) In contemporary society, the word of the court executes judgment. The word is the law. In this universe, God is in the position of judge. Jesus came as the attorney with authority to oppose Satan, the prosecutor of man. Satan accuses man with his words, but these are false charges. Jesus champions the cause of believers, and his standard is the word of truth.

God pronounces the sentence: His love is the standard, and love is His word. There is no difference between the earthly court and the heavenly court, in that both conduct their trials by words, not by fire.

God's word is standard of judgment

So the world will not be burned up by fire when it is judged. The Bible states, "The Lord Jesus will slay him [the evil one] with the breath of his mouth." (II Thess. 2:8) The word of God is the breath of his mouth. Jesus came to slay the wicked by the word of God, and "He shall smite the earth with the road of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked." (Is. 11:4) What then is the "rod of his mouth?" We take this symbol to mean his tongue through which he speaks the word of God.

Let's resolve this point completely. Look to where Jesus was instructing the people: "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me, has eternal life; he does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life." (John 5:24) Men pass from death to life by words of truth.

God will not send you the Messiah to burn you up. He will not send you the Messiah to set your houses afire or destroy your society. But if we reject the word of God spoken by the Lord, we leave no choice open except to be condemned by judgment. Here is the reason why.

In the beginning God created man and the universe by His word-logos. Man denied the word of God and fell. Spiritual death has reigned ever since. Through His salvation work, God has been recreating man. Man fell by disobedience to God's word, and man shall be recreated by obedience to the same word of God. The word of God is given by the Lord. Accepting the word brings life out of death. Such death is the hell in which we live. Thus the word of God is the judge, and it will bring upon you a far more profound effect than the hottest flames.

God intended to begin the history of goodness in Adam. But Adam fell. God worked to restore history and begin anew in Jesus Christ. But the people of his time lacked faith and did not give him a chance.

Therefore, the promise of the Lord of the Second Advent will be fulfilled. We cannot doubt that Christianity today is in definite crisis. This is a crisis parallel to the time of Jesus, when the established religious institutions failed the Son of God. We recognize this crisis of our time; but we can also see through the haze to the brightly shining day of new hope.

The end of the world is at hand, not only for Christians but for all people throughout the world. The new history of God will begin with the arrival of the Lord. Blessed are those who see him and accept him. It is the hope of Christianity to recognize, receive, and accept the Lord of the Second Advent. The chance has arrived for all of us. The greatest opportunity in any man's lifetime is now knocking at our door. Please be humble; and open yourself to great new hope!

This is the time for unprecedented spiritual awakening. I want you to open your eyes and ears to perceive the truth. This is my hope, that by sharing this message with you, we might unite to prepare for the glorious day of the arrival of the Lord. Let us see the God of history, let us understand the God of Providence, and let us embrace the living God in our own lives.

God's Hope for America

God’s Hope for Humanity

Sun Myung Moon
October 20, 1973
Lisner Auditorium, George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA
Twenty-one city speaking tour in the United States

Photo date and location unknown

Ladies and gentlemen, first of all I would like to express my heartfelt appreciation for your coming tonight. I thank God for this opportunity because I have been looking forward to visiting this city and meeting all of you.

Because we speak different languages, even though I can speak, from your standpoint I am dumb. Also from my standpoint, even though you can hear, you are deaf. In order to correct this, we need the man standing next to me as my interpreter. However, as you know, interpretation from one language to another is not an easy task. So this man beside me really needs your sympathetic understanding.

My topic tonight is “God’s Hope for Humanity” This subject is vast in nature and rather complicated in content. I will try my best to stay on the central point of my topic.

God and human beings are subject and object partners

If there is a God, God definitely needs human beings. God created all things, but in creation, human beings occupy the most precious and distinguished position. It is therefore very important for us to have a clear understanding of the relationship between God and ourselves. Historically, there have been many theories concerning this relationship. Varying opinions, theological concepts and academic schools abound, however the true, living relationship between God and humankind remains an unsettled question.

Since this relationship is so fundamental to life, our understanding cannot proceed until we have clarified this question thoroughly. As we pursue the answer, we discover that there are two main perspectives that we might take. One view is from God’s standpoint, and the other is from our point of view. A variety of religions have developed through developing these two perspectives, and there must be one principle common to all religions, one that can clarify the relationship between God and ourselves. God wants us to understand this truth in the ultimate sense.

As someone living on this earth, what do you consider to be most precious? If somebody were to ask you this question, I’m sure your answers would vary. Some might say, “Power.” Some would undoubtedly say money, Money is everything.” And others would suggest, “Wisdom or knowledge.” Then are those elements—power, money, knowledge—the most important things in life? If we take time to reflect on this question, we can conclude that there is ultimately no one who will claim these as most precious. What, then, do we hold as most precious? When we look into this question deeply, other thoughts emerge. We soon come to the conclusion that the most precious thing is love; love is the most precious thing in life. And second to love, life itself is most precious. If we have love and life, we need one more thing—an ideal. These three elements, love, life, and an ideal, are not just precious and profound in value, they are the very things that make our lives worth living.

While it may seem like an expression from a fairytale, it is understandable that we need to emphasize the notion of unchanging, unique and eternal love. No one wishes for love to change. Regardless of whether we are teenagers, middle-aged adults, or senior citizens, we all wish for love that is eternal. Also, in the same way, with respect to life, there is no one who wishes to live for a short period of time and then just die. We wish for life to last forever, to be unchanging, uniquely special, and absolute.

The goal of your religions is ultimately for salvation and eternal life. If there were no belief in eternal life, we would not have religion. Religion is necessary because it is through religion that people can strive toward the ideal of love. Thus, love, life and an ideal are the most precious things to us, and we cannot help but strive for eternal life.

Furthermore, we see that the words “love” and “ideal” are without meaning by themselves. Love exists only when there is someone to love and someone to be loved by. In the same way, an ideal is something to be shared with someone. Love and ideals come alive as soon as there is a reciprocal and complementary relationship of giving and receiving established. We are in the object partner position and always need someone to be in the subject partner position. Love and ideals will bud and blossom into full flower only when two elements are in a relationship as subject and object partners.

Are we the cause, the source of the universe, or did someone create us? How can we be the cause of the universe when we do not even create ourselves? It is obvious that we are resultant beings. We are the products of some cause. Therefore, a cause that is in the subject partner position has to exist. There must be a cause for our existence. This subject partner, or cause, then, is the essential reality. We must be as certain of this as we are of our own existence. Whatever name you choose for that cause does not matter. The most important thing is that there is a causal being. And we call that being, “God.”

Let us put our question to God. “What is the most precious thing to you, God?” The reply will be no different from your answer and mine. God will answer, “Love, life and my ideal are the most precious things to me.” Does God need money? God created all things. Everything belongs to God anyway. God does not need money. Does God need power? God is already the source of all power. What about knowledge? God is omniscient and the source of all knowledge. Yes, God is all these things, but God cannot have love, life and the ideal alone. God needs to share, to give and receive with someone in a reciprocal relationship. Even almighty God cannot experience the value of love, life and His ideal when He is alone. That is why God created human beings to be object partners.

Now I shall ask, “Why do we act the way we do?” The answer is simple: because God acts that way. All human traits originate in God. Why are we the way we are? Because God is that way.

We are mirrors reflecting the characteristics of God. God is just like you and me. God is the origin. Therefore, our love comes from the love of God. Our life comes from the life of God, and our ideals come from the ideals of God. We feel these are the most precious things because God felt these were most precious first. God is the subject partner of love, the subject partner of life, and the subject partner of ideals. We are the object partners of love, the object partners of life, and the object partners of ideals. Therefore, if God is absolute, we are to be absolute. If God is unchanging, we are to be unchanging. If God is unique, we are to be unique. If God is everlasting, we are to be everlasting. Our eternal life is not a fantasy. It is reality. Since God is eternal, human beings were created to be eternal. Otherwise, we would not reflect the nature of our eternal God.

Human beings are God incarnate

If there is a God of love, life and ideals, and that God does not manifest all these qualities in human beings as His object partners, then God has defeated the very purpose of creating. God either projected God’s own full value in the object of creation, or created nothing at all. God is the subject partner to human beings, and we are the object partners to God. An object partner is the full reflection of the subject partner. So we are the visible form of God, and God is our invisible form. Subject and object partners are one in essence. God and human beings are one. Human beings are God incarnate. Otherwise, we would not be able to reflect God’s full image. God could not realize joy, the purpose of the creation. When we as object partners are not perfect as God is perfect, we cannot reflect the full love, life and ideal of God. So human beings, the object partners of God, are as important in value as God.

If I made excited gestures and shouted to an empty auditorium, I am sure that anyone who saw me would wonder, “Is that man crazy?” Although if there were someone listening and responding, some object partner there to receive my words, even one small child in front of me, and I poured out my heart and soul to that person, then I would be considered normal. The sole difference is the presence of a person as an object partner.

What I am trying to illustrate is the value of an object partner. As we are the object partners to God, we are placed in a position equal to God. Thus, people share the same value as God and are just as important as God. Even though God is most high, and noble and mighty, God too has to have an object partner. Otherwise God feels no joy. Joy comes when you receive stimulation from the object partner. Not even God can be joyful alone. Please realize that God created us and the universe for joy. However God’s joy remains dormant until God gives and receives with an object partner.

Until now, through Christianity we placed God so high up in heaven, and pushed people so low in hell, that there has been an unbridgeable gap between us. A wide and raging river has separated us from God. We do not dare to reach out to God as a living reality. We have been unable to realize that God is so close, so real, and so approachable, that we can even dwell with God. We are supposed to be the living temples of God. Yet conventional Christianity has been unable to make that a reality.

No matter how wealthy and famous you may be, unless you have someone with whom to give and receive, so that you can share your joy, your sorrow, your opinions and your ideals, you are just a poor person.

We feel joy and sadness because God’s heart can feel joy and sadness. Not until this time in history did we ever believe that God could feel sorrow. And God can feel excitement and indignation, just as we can. We, the object partners of God, have this ability to experience emotion because our subject partner, God, has the same capacity for emotion. God is the first personality, and human personality comes from God. How then can we become true object partners to God? By our efforts and hard work alone? No. There is but one way to come together in oneness with God. That way is through love, through oneness in love with God.

Let me illustrate. Suppose there is a famous man. Opposite him is a woman who is unassuming and meek and without beauty or education. However, once this great man and this humble woman establish a circuit of giving and receiving in love, she will immediately achieve his level of prestige. Let’s say the man’s name is Jones and he falls in love with this woman and marries her. She then becomes Mrs. Jones and returns his love with all her heart. Whatever power, authority and prestige Mr. Jones enjoys, Mrs. Jones would share in every respect. Now, what does this teach us? Once we have a relationship of love with God and become one with God, our value increases instantly to the level of God’s value. And love such as this is everlasting, unchanging and unique.

The alpha and the omega

Now is the time when we have to fulfill this fundamental relationship between God and humankind. The subject and object partners must be one just as cause and effect are one. Therefore, the Bible says, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” (Rev. 22:13) Within God, two are one. God is the beginning and we are the end. He is the first and we are the last. And the relationship between God and humankind is a circuit, because the beginning and the end come together in oneness.

Peace, happiness and joy are the fruits of harmony in love. Therefore, in God’s ideal of creation, the relationship between God and human beings was planned to be one of harmony in love, harmony in life, and harmony in ideal.

Thus we know that God is the subject partner and we are the object partners. We also know that the object partner is just as important as the subject partner. We now want to know precisely what our position as God’s object partner means.

When God created human beings, God gave us wisdom and ambition. Wisdom gives us the power to compare, and ambition gives us the power to strive for the best. If there are two choices before us, A and B, we will automatically compare them to determine which is better. Our human desire leads us to choose, and our ambition does not let us rest until we have attained ultimate fulfillment.

Let me make another analogy. Let’s say there is a most handsome man and most beautiful woman. They are not only attractive, but also all-powerful and all wise. You would be anxious to have some kind of personal relationship with this great man and woman. What would you want it to be? Would you like to be their servant? No, in your heart you know there is a position better than that of servant. Would you like to be their friend? No, you would still not be happy. Would you like to be their adopted child? Will this position bring you complete happiness? No, I don’t think so. You would still crave a closer position. There is one relationship beyond which there is nothing more intimate. That is to become a true son or daughter of this man and woman. With this relationship you will have reached the ultimate fulfillment, and you cannot desire anything more.

Why, then, do we want to become true sons and daughters? It is because that is the position in which we receive this man and woman’s love most fully. There is no closer or deeper relationship in human society than that between the parents and children. Once you have your parents’ love, you possess everything they have. Every joy of the father, all the power of the mother, all their skill, wisdom, ambition and desire will be yours. In receiving the love of a father and mother, there is no procedure; there is no paperwork or ceremony necessary to grant those things to their son and daughter. The parents and children are automatically one. This principle applies throughout humankind, and it applies between God and us.

The true child of God

Then, what kind of relationship would you like to have with God? Would you be content to be just a servant? Or would you prefer to be a friend? Would you rather be an adopted son or daughter, or would you like to find a way to become God’s own child? I know you would be satisfied with nothing short of the ultimate position as sons and daughters of God.

God’s ultimate purpose in His creation of human beings is to give to us all God’s love, life and ideal. You are to occupy the entire love of God, to the depth of His heart. By becoming God’s true sons and daughters your desire will be fulfilled. That is your ultimate destiny. Then you will be saturated with the love of God. You will be filled with joy and feel overwhelmed by a total satisfaction with life.

There is no limit to this joy. True happiness has no end. When you are standing in the love of God, every cell in your body jumps for joy. You breathe in and out with the entire universe. In this state your life is fulfilled. This is how God means for us to live; enraptured in love and joy. And through our joy, God receives joy. The joy of humanity is the joy of God; the joy of God is the joy of humanity.

Early in my life I was called for a mission as God’s instrument. I was called to reveal God’s truth, as God’s prophet. I committed myself unyieldingly to the pursuit of truth, searching the hills and valleys of the spirit world. The time suddenly came upon me when heaven opened up and I was privileged to communicate with Jesus Christ and the living God directly. Since then I have received many astonishing revelations. God told me that the most basic and central truth of the universe is that God is the Parent and we are God’s children. We are all created as children of God. And God said there is nothing closer, nothing deeper, nothing more ultimate than when parent and child are one; one in love, one in life, and one in ideal.

Love, life and the ideal are the central point where parent and child meet. Once we unite, at that point God’s love is our love, God’s ideal is our ideal and God’s life is our life. There is no relationship where you can have the eternal unity of life, love and the ideal other than in the parent-child relationship. This is a fundamental reality of the universe.

How do we come into being in this world? The father and mother become one through their love, and bring together their lives and ideals. Their love precedes our birth. Love is the force that unites. Husband and wife become one in love. This means the husband’s love, life, and ideal become the wife’s, and the wife’s love, life, and ideal become the husband’s. This is the way that two live as one, and two become one flesh. Upon this foundation of oneness in love, a new life can be generated.

When a child is born, that child is the manifestation of the parents’ love, life and ideal. When you look at your own child, you are actually seeing another you. You are looking at the fruit of your love, the fruit of your life, and the fruit of your ideal. You are looking at your second self, another visible form of yourself.

Now let us expand this truth to a universal scale. Man and woman were created as God’s son and daughter. God wanted to be reflected in human beings. Therefore the Bible says, “God created humankind in His image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” (Gen. 1:27)

Humankind is created in the likeness of God. In other words, human beings are God incarnate. Humankind is the mirror of the living God, and God’s every virtue, characteristic and quality is reflected in this mirror. God surely wants human beings to reflect God’s love, life and ideal. We are the fruit of God’s love, life and ideal.

The state of perfection

How wonderful, how simply wonderful it is to live this perfected life of God! This is the true life of joy unequaled by any earthly joy. Once you reach this state of perfection you do not need prayer. Why would you? You meet God face to face and you live heart to heart with Him. You converse with God. You no longer need religion and you do not need a Savior. All the things of religion are part of the mending process, the process of restoration. A person of perfect health does not need a physician. The person in perfect union with God does not need a savior.

Life in union with God is the one great way to live life with God, you living in God and God living in you. This was the spiritual state of Jesus when he said, “Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?” (John 14:10) God and human beings will embrace in one all-consuming love. This is the state where God is made the living reality. You no longer believe; you know. And you live the truth. If you really experience this love in oneness with God, then you have tasted the supreme experience of life. There are probably many Christian leaders among you, yet how many of you have had that wonderful experience, receiving the profound love of God?

God made us to live a life of intoxication. We are meant to live intoxicated by the love of God. Since we lost this original capacity, people seek unnatural, artificial intoxication, getting drunk on alcohol or deadened with drugs. The perfect person, however, is created to be intoxicated in the love of God. There is nothing that can go beyond this feeling of joy. Every cell in your body will explode with joy. Your eyes and ears, the tissues in your face, your arms and legs, everything will be newly alive in a rapture of joy. Nothing else can ever match this quality of joy. This is the plan of God’s original creation. When you say, “Heavenly Father,” do you really have a living and vibrant feeling of God’s presence? Don’t you want to hear God answering, “Yes, my child”?

Here is my gift to you tonight: I want you to realize that the true relationship between God and human beings is that of a subject partner and object partner. You are God’s sons and daughters. Once you have achieved unity with God, nothing can trouble you. Neither sorrow, nor loneliness, or sickness or anything else under the sun can discourage you. God is the ultimate security. You could pay many millions of dollars and still not have that kind of security. It is priceless. No money can buy it. This is the total experience of life. We are meant to live with God.

Your life is therefore the most valuable thing in this universe. That is why Jesus said, “For what will it profit them, if they gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Or what shall they give in return for their life?” (Matt. 16:26) Jesus is talking about life with God. Life without God has the value of a burned-out light bulb. A life without God is death.

Jesus Christ is the one person who lived God’s ideal in its fullest realization. He was the first person of perfection ever to walk the earth, and he came to restore the true relationship between God and humanity. But after Jesus’ crucifixion, Christianity identified him with God. This is why the gap between God and humankind remained. Jesus is a man in whom God is incarnate. But he himself is not God. Paul’s first epistle to Timothy in the Bible says, “For there is one God; there is also one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus, himself human.” (1 Tim. 2:5) The dwelling of God within Jesus was a complete reality. He said, “Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?” (John 14:10) Jesus is, indeed, the only begotten Son of God, yet God does not want Jesus as the only son. All human beings are created to say, “I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” This is everyone’s fully attainable goal.

God’s view of good and evil

Our first step in becoming the true sons and daughters of God is to clearly comprehend God’s view of good and evil. What is goodness and what is evil?

We are not concerned with a man-made definition. God defines the eternal standard of good and evil. The sharp definition of good and evil existed at the time of His creation, long before evil ever came into being in the Garden of Eden. God’s view of good and evil will never change. God is eternal, His law is eternal, and His definition is eternal and unchanging, despite the passage of time.

All of our human traits originate in God. We recognize that there is some human tendency for selfishness. This is natural because at one time God Himself was self-centered. This fact may surprise you, but you must understand that before God created man and the universe, He was completely alone, with no one to care for except Himself. However the very instant that God initiated creation, His full concept of life emerged. God now lives for His counterpart, not for Himself.

What is creation? Creation means nothing more than the Creator, God, projecting Himself into a substantial form. He made Himself incarnate symbolically in the universe, and He made Himself incarnate directly in man. When the spirit takes form, this is creation. God invested Himself in the creation. God’s investment of energy is the creation.

The book of Genesis in the Bible makes creation sound simple and easy. Genesis gives us the impression that God’s creation is accomplished through the magic of His words. God simply says, “Let there be a world” and presto! The world comes into being. Then He says, “Let there be man” and poof! Adam and Eve come into being.

But now it has been revealed that it was not this easy at all. God invested all of Himself in His creation. He did not reserve even one ounce of energy. Creation was His total labor, His total effort of giving all of Himself. When God put His entire heart and soul into the creation of His object, He was investing 100 percent of Himself. Only in this way could He create His second self, the visible God.

Therefore, after His creation, God no longer existed just for Himself. God began existing for His son and daughter, Adam and Eve. He exists to love, He exists to give. God is the totally unselfish existence. God cannot exist alone. “Love” and “ideal” only take on meaning when partners are in complementary relationship. God initiated creation and made an investment He cannot lose. When God poured all of His love, life, and ideal into His second self, in a sense, He had to realize a profit. God knew that when He invested all He had one hundred percent, His object would mature and return to Him many, many times over the fruits of love, life, and His ideal. His object, humankind, is everything to God. The life of the object attracts God. God wants to go and dwell with His object, with humankind.

Let us look at an illustration. Suppose there is a great artist. If he works at random without feeling, he cannot create anything worthwhile. To create the masterpiece of his lifetime, the artist must put all of his heart and soul into his creation. That is the only way for him to come up with a great work of art. If an artist works in this way, his art becomes his life. God is the greatest of all artists. When He created His masterpieces, man and woman, He poured His heart into the process. He poured His soul into it. He poured all of His wisdom and all of His energy into it. God wished only to exist for Adam and Eve, and all mankind. He saved not a single ounce of energy when He created them. In this way, humankind has become the life of God.

Goodness is total giving

God set the pattern for the universe. In the ideal existence we live for others. The subject exists for the object, and the object exists for the subject. God’s definition of goodness is total giving, total service, and absolute unselfishness. We are to live our lives for others. You live for others and others live for you. God lives for man and man lives for God. The husband lives for his wife and the wife lives for her husband. This is goodness. Here unity, harmony, and prosperity abound.

Would you, as a man, be disturbed if I said that you were created for a woman? Perhaps some of you are proud of your masculinity and would not want to hear this. But this is the principle of God’s creation, and you must not be sorry to hear these words. Man lives his life for his partner, not for himself.

Let us assume that one of you ladies is a beauty queen. No matter how beautiful you are, your beauty is not for your own gratification; it is for the delight of men. We are created to live for each other. This is the very reason for our existence; we exist for others, for an object, for a counterpart. This is the principle for all human relationships in our society. Parents exist for their children, and children exist for their parents. Then both parents and children, when they give unselfishly, become united in a circular motion.

This circling motion is the motion of unity. When you give and take, the give and take action creates a circular motion. Circular motion alone can be eternal, because there you will find no end. Therefore, all of God’s creation is based on a pattern of circular movement, since He created for eternity. Even our faces are round, although there is one central vertical line. Our eyeballs are round, and there are upper and lower lips, which make up a round mouth. The sun is round, the moon, the earth, and all heavenly bodies are round. They are each rotating on their own axes and revolving around others. Everything in this universe has complementary give and take action between subject and object. Give and take action occurs between arteries and veins, and so the blood circulates through the body. Human sickness is the state where the balance of give and take action is broken, and normal circulating motion is stopped. Without having this give and take action between subject and object, without abiding by this principle, nothing endures for eternity. All existence that is based upon God’s principle is a good existence.

Then, what is evil? Evil is the emergence of selfishness into this world. God’s principle of unselfish giving was twisted into an ungodly principle of selfish taking. The ungodly position of desiring to be served, rather than to serve, was thereby established. The origin of evil is Satan. He was in the position to serve God, but instead he posed as another god and subjugated man for his own benefit. God is the absolute positive force in this universe. Then Satan posed as another positive force. Two positives naturally repel each other. Satan is a fallen archangel. He left his position as a faithful servant to God and man, and he challenged and competed with God. His motivation was selfishness. Out of his selfishness comes the origin of evil and sin.

What happened is this: Eve fell from her position as God’s first daughter, becoming the first victim of Satan and transforming herself into a creature of selfishness. Together Eve and Satan then successfully brought Adam into their selfish world. Through this tragic event, God was isolated by man in the Garden of Eden. Human history started on the wrong footing, without God. The foundation for the evil history of man was laid, and Satan was established as the ruler of this world. Selfishness came into being at the beginning of history, and now our world is rampant with killing, lying, and stealing. All of these actions in the evil world are motivated by selfishness. Evil subjugated others for its own benefit, while good sacrifices itself for the benefit of others.

Since the fall of man, God’s work has been the restoration of original goodness. God wants to destroy the world of evil and recreate the world of goodness. We have lost our health. We have become sick people. The salvation of God is, therefore, the restoration of man to a healthy state once again.

God sowed the seed of goodness, but before He could gather its fruit, Satan invaded with his evil seed and harvested his evil fruit. For this reason, God must sow the seed of goodness once again. To do this job God needs certain tools. The religions of the world have served as these tools for God. Throughout history, good religions have taught God’s way of life, centered upon sacrificial love and duty. Thus Christianity may be considered the most advanced and progressive religion because it teaches this sacrificial love and duty in supreme form.

Jesus came as a savior, but his teaching was, “The Son of man came not to be served but to serve.” (Matt. 20:28) Jesus taught that the greatest love in this universe is to give one’s life for his enemy. The teaching of the Bible is contrary to the common rule of our worldly society. It is exactly the opposite of the way of this self-centered world. The Bible teaches complete giving and total sacrifice. “He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Matt. 10:39) It seems almost foolish to think seriously about living this way in man’s evil society. However, once you know God’s principle, you discover that there is actually no wisdom greater than this.

You reap as you sow

Jesus Christ’s teachings were hitting the very core of this fundamental truth. The more you give the more you receive. God rewards total giving with total love, and total sacrifice with total life. Giving creates room for God’s love to enter. The more room and the greater the vacuum created by your giving, the faster you will be filled by the flow of God’s love.

To be treated well you must first treat others well. You reap as you sow. Sow evil to reap evil; sow goodness to reap goodness. Your concern should be how to give, and how to give well. As for the return to you, you must trust in God. He will take care of it.

Let us take an illustration of a good man and a bad man. Let us say there is one man who has ten friends. Day in and day out this man is unselfishly serving his ten friends. People cannot help but love this man. He can become the very best friend to ten people. Then his influence will spread to the relatives and friends of those first ten people. By giving and serving unselfishly this man becomes prosperous. He is a center of harmony and unity because he lives God’s principle. Unselfishness brings prosperity. Here is a good man.

But suppose, on the contrary, this man said to his friends, “You ten, bring everything to me; you are here to serve me.” If he spoke this way to his friends three times, everyone would end all connection with him. They would want to have nothing at all to do with him. So he would be left all alone. Isn’t that true, even in our society? It is universally true. A self-centered doctrine, a self-centered philosophy, a self-centered way of life will fling you head over heels down the tragic road of self-destruction. However, if you live your life in service to others, you will find prosperity. It may seem that such a route would lead you to ruin, but it will not. The only reason it may not always bring prosperity to you is because you do not give to the very end. In the middle you suddenly become skeptical. You change your heart or pity yourself, and so you shrink from God’s law of total giving. A good result never materializes. Total giving is the way of prosperity, because it is the way of God.

If any individual sacrifices himself for another individual, he becomes a hero to others. If one family is sacrificial for the well-being of another family, then that family becomes a heroic family among all families. Peoples and nations who sacrifice themselves for the benefit of others become champions of nations. A man who gives his life for his parents is a pious son. A man who gives his life for his king is a loyal subject. And a man who gives his life for all mankind is a saint.

Jesus Christ proclaimed this very truth you are hearing tonight. He strove for the fulfillment of God’s truth on earth. He came not to satisfy his nation’s selfish purpose, but to achieve salvation for the entire world.

God intended the chosen people of Israel to serve as the prepared instrument of the Messiah for his mission of world salvation. The people of Israel did not know this. They conceived of the coming Messiah as an invincible military conqueror who would restore the political empire of King David for the glory of the Jews. How wrong they were!

God’s purpose is not the salvation of any particular man, church, or nation. God’s purpose is to save the whole world. Therefore, the true church would give itself as a sacrifice for the benefit of the world. Yes, true Christians must be willing to sacrifice their own lives for the salvation of the world and all mankind. However, Christian teachings today are self-centered. Christians are seeking their own personal salvation. Christians are crying out for “my salvation” and “my heaven.” This is contrary to God’s truth and contrary to God’s ideal. We must steadfastly give, love, sacrifice, and live for the sake of others.

We must all work for the ideal way of life. I exist for my family, my family exists for our society, our society exists for our nation, our nation exists for the world, the world exists for God, and God exists for you and me, for all mankind. In this great circle of give and take there is harmony, there is unity, and there is an eternal process of increasing prosperity. Furthermore, since in this circuit all existence will fulfill its purpose of creation, there is abundant and profound joy. This is the kingdom of heaven, in which feelings of happiness overflow.

In this world, selfishness ruins everything. Selfishness in the family causes disharmony, which then erupts into bitterness and strife. Everyone wants to be served, instead of serving others. Wives tell their husbands what to do and then seek to be served. Husbands want to be served by their wives. Parents expect service from their children, and the children take their parents for granted. This is demonstrated in our families, in our societies, and in our nations.

In this world today, nations exist solely for their own national interests. They plot, connive, cheat, and lie. They destroy other nations for their own national benefit. Is there even one nation on earth, which pledges to God, “God, you may use this nation as your sacrifice and as your altar, if that is the way you can save the world”? Tell me, where is such a nation? Where?

It is a recognized fact that when America demonstrated the spirit of service and sacrificial duty in the world, and went out of her way to help others in their need, when America gave lives, money, and a helping hand, she enjoyed a golden age. But now America has a selfish attitude. Its domestic problems today are very difficult. America’s situation is chaotic. Today there are greater divisions, more corruption, and graver problems choking this land.

I am not criticizing any people or nation. I am merely proclaiming the heavenly truth that all mankind is seeking.

I started the Unification Church. If this Unification Church exists solely for the benefit of the welfare of the Unification Church itself, then it is doomed to perish. I founded the Church so that I could give my life, my heart, and my soul for the advancement of the salvation of the world. Among this audience there are many members of the Unification Church. Their great desire, their only motivation, is to serve others, to save this nation and the world.

Jesus did not teach his disciples laws of retaliation. He told them, “If anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.” (Matt. 5:39, 41) You never have to retaliate; all you have to do is give completely and totally, and then God will return to you more and more abundantly.

When Jesus was crucified, Roman soldiers pierced him. And Jesus prayed for his enemies, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34) Even at the moment of death on the cross, Jesus was so earnest in forgiving. His very last act was motivated by his love for his enemies. He was the supreme example of a paragon of love. The example of Jesus Christ is the absolute standard for all mankind. Just imagine an entire nation composed of men like Jesus. What would you call it? The kingdom of heaven on earth; it could be nothing less.

Jesus Christ was lord over all life because of his unparalleled form of loving, giving, and sacrifice. He will remain the Lord forever. In the same way, no one in this universe surpasses the total giving and loving of God. So God is God forever. He reigns over all creation.

Look at the decline of Rome. The entire Roman Empire collapsed in front of an army with no weapons, the army of Jesus Christ. By what means did the Christians conquer Rome? They conquered by love, sacrifice, and total giving, up to the cost of their very lives. History is a witness that no empire can withstand the army of sacrificial love. And this history shall be repeated.

Up to now in our lives we did not know clearly the definition of good and evil. We could not be certain where to commit ourselves, when to act, what to serve. This has been the source of the greatest confusion in human lives. We must not become Christians who merely crave their own wellbeing. As Christians, we must live the life of Jesus and give ourselves totally for the benefit of others, so that others might have life. This is God’s way.

This present world is evoking the wrath of God. It truly deserves His uncompromising judgment. But God is love, and He is long-suffering. God is suppressing His anger because He wants to save us. He is giving us a chance to change. He is waiting.

I know that Western culture is characterized by individualism. However, selfish individualism is doomed. Sacrificial individualism will blossom. Individuality in itself is good. God gave each one of us a unique way to serve. But individualism without God can only build castles of sand.

The quiet revolution

I can see a great change, a great new surge of revolution coming to America— not by fire, not by bullets, but by God’s truth kindling a revolution in men’s hearts. I have come here to ignite this spiritual revolution. I do not need to demonstrate in front of the White House or in Lafayette Square. The answer does not lie there, but in the hearts of men, in the quiet revolution from selfishness to unselfishness.

Can you imagine how wonderful the ideal society will be? Individuals will belong to their families, the family will belong to the society, the society will belong to the nation, the nation will belong to the world, the world will belong to God, and God will belong to you. He who gives the most will know God most deeply.

Some young people might say to me, “Rev. Moon, you are coming here repeating the same old stuff!’ But that is not at all true. I am speaking, not from theory, but from life. I am telling you that we are all here to live the truth, as Jesus lived the truth. This is not a theory, a philosophy, or a theological doctrine. It is the ultimate truth of God—not to be talked about, but to be lived. When man makes this truth live, it is going to bring about the greatest change upon the face of the earth. Although in one sense you know the truth of the things I have been saying, still nobody truly believes them. Since nobody believes the truth, nobody ever lives it. This truth is as old as God, yet as new as the twenty-first century. You must live the truth. If the revelation of the Divine Principle has made this age-old truth real in your heart, then you have in effect discovered a brand-new truth. The Divine Principle is touching the hearts of millions of young people, showing them the way to our very real God. People throughout the world are learning that God is absolute and perfect, and the perfect God demands perfect human beings as His object. Jesus said, “You, therefore, must be perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matt. 5:48) He is dearly indicating that our standard of value is the perfection of our Heavenly Father. Otherwise we cannot be God’s objects and God cannot accept us.

All of us want to be perfect. All of us want heaven on earth, but we ask, “How can it be done?”

We wonder if it is at all possible for man to be perfect. Some contend, with apparent justification, that all one has to do is merely look at man to see the gross error of such an aspiration. We point to the sin and suffering inherent in all things, even in the things that are most holy. We say, “Only God is perfect.” However, when we fully comprehend the design for man in God’s concept of creation, we will understand that perfection is within our grasp.

In God’s ideal of creation we were designed as temples of God, temples of the spirit of God, where God is master. “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s spirit dwells in you?” (1 Cor. 3:16)We were designed to be God’s temples. When we attain this status, we shall cease to possess a will that is corruptible. Limitations or laws will no longer be necessary, for His will is our will. With His spirit dwelling in us completely we shall move only as He dictates. We shall then be perfect, because the force that is guiding and directing us is the perfect force.

When man achieves this ultimate goal he is in perfect union with God. He is no longer living on the human level alone, but on the God-like level. He takes on God’s qualities because the Spirit dwells in and possesses him as a perfect temple; he reflects God’s virtue and power. Thus man can be as perfect as Heavenly Father is perfect. This was the original pattern, which God intended for humankind through Adam.

Marriage is the most important means of establishing God’s kingdom on earth. Adam and Eve were God’s first children. They were born of God, grew up in God, and would have matured into perfection in God. God intended to make Adam and Eve one in heavenly matrimony. Then they would have borne sinless children and become the true mother and father for all mankind. They would have been the first “king” and “queen,” establishing the heavenly kingdom on earth.

Has such a kingdom ever existed? No. Instead, history started in the wrong direction. From the evil first step, Satan has been the god of this world. It has, therefore, been God’s purpose of restoration, His purpose of salvation, to restore the perfected nation so that He can truly have His kingdom upon the earth. For this God needs a model. Who can set the criteria of perfection on this earth? To meet this need the Messiah comes.

Jesus Christ came as the Messiah. He was to be the model of perfection upon every level: the individual, family, tribal, national, and worldwide levels. He came to establish a perfect world in his lifetime, not over a period of centuries.

Before God sent His champion Jesus Christ, He prepared the field with the chosen people of Israel. They were the foundation for the Messiah’s coming. The people of Israel could have perfected themselves and their nation if they had united with the coming of the Lord. The kingdom of God would have been a physical reality at that time.

The mission of Jesus

However, his people did not accept Jesus. Instead of welcome, he met rejection at every level. Jesus was denied the opportunity to take a bride in the position of restored Eve, and to establish the first Godcentered heavenly family. Instead, the people of Israel nailed him to the cross. Read 1 Cor. 2:8: “None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” In this way, the mission of Jesus Christ was left undone on earth.

The history of God’s providence is a very sad story. To comfort the heart of God and fulfill His work, we must clearly understand His process of restoration.

When God created man, He placed Adam and Eve, man and woman, in the Garden of Eden. They both united with Satan and became sinful, thereby leaving God isolated. In the process of restoration, God must restore both Adam and Eve. Jesus came as the sinless Adam, or perfected Adam. His first mission was, therefore, to restore his bride and form the first family of God. All fallen generations would have been grafted onto him as the true olive tree. God-centered families, tribes, and nations would have been restored in this way. Perfection would have reigned. The sinless state of God’s kingdom could have been a reality for the last two thousand years. This is why 1 Cor. 15:45 says Jesus is the “last Adam,” the second Adam.

Jesus came, but he was crucified. He was not given the chance to restore his bride. This is why Jesus promised his second coming. Jesus Christ must come again to consummate the mission he left undone two thousand years ago. Let me repeat: Jesus was a man, not God Himself. When he returns to earth he will come as a man in the position of the third Adam.

Let us understand more fully the significance of these revelations in the book of Revelations, where there is the prophecy of the marriage of the Lamb. God intended Adam and Eve to come together in heavenly matrimony in the Garden of Eden. Since it was not realized at that time, God intended Jesus to fulfill this marriage in his time. However, it was not realized by Jesus either because of the faithlessness of the chosen people.

Jesus was the second Adam. It was God’s Will for him to be blessed in heavenly matrimony with the second Eve, his restored bride. They would have become the True Parents for mankind. In this way all mankind would have found life by grafting onto them.

Jesus cautioned the people, “You are of your father the devil.” (John 8:44) Because of the beginning point of human history, we were born as Satan’s children. Through the restoration of True Parents we will be reborn as children of our Heavenly Father, God, with full salvation.

God’s Will was denied fulfillment in Jesus’ time. That is why he is coming again as the third Adam. The marriage supper of the Lamb will take place. True Parents for all mankind will be realized in our time. God will bring forth His true family upon the face of the earth. All people will be made new through their True Parents. All will be made capable of bringing sinless children into the world. This will be done when Jesus Christ reappears. The kingdom of heaven on earth will then begin. This will be the day when the dwelling of God is with men. God will be full of joy. His own son, as perfected third Adam, will initiate an entirely new history upon the earth. On that day, we shall become living images of God. God will bring His kingdom on earth.

I pledge to you from the bottom of my heart that the realization of all this is at hand, in the fullness of God’s time. The ultimate realization of this ideal has been the hope of God, as well as the hope of humanity.

Thank you very much for your attentive listening. You have been a most gracious audience. Thank you.

God’s Hope for Humanity

Sun Myung Moon
October 20, 1973
Lisner Auditorium, George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA
Twenty-one city speaking tour in the United States

Photo date and location unknown

Ladies and gentlemen, first of all I would like to express my heartfelt appreciation for your coming tonight. I thank God for this opportunity because I have been looking forward to visiting this city and meeting all of you.

Because we speak different languages, even though I can speak, from your standpoint I am dumb. Also from my standpoint, even though you can hear, you are deaf. In order to correct this, we need the man standing next to me as my interpreter. However, as you know, interpretation from one language to another is not an easy task. So this man beside me really needs your sympathetic understanding.

My topic tonight is “God’s Hope for Humanity” This subject is vast in nature and rather complicated in content. I will try my best to stay on the central point of my topic.

God and human beings are subject and object partners

If there is a God, God definitely needs human beings. God created all things, but in creation, human beings occupy the most precious and distinguished position. It is therefore very important for us to have a clear understanding of the relationship between God and ourselves. Historically, there have been many theories concerning this relationship. Varying opinions, theological concepts and academic schools abound, however the true, living relationship between God and humankind remains an unsettled question.

Since this relationship is so fundamental to life, our understanding cannot proceed until we have clarified this question thoroughly. As we pursue the answer, we discover that there are two main perspectives that we might take. One view is from God’s standpoint, and the other is from our point of view. A variety of religions have developed through developing these two perspectives, and there must be one principle common to all religions, one that can clarify the relationship between God and ourselves. God wants us to understand this truth in the ultimate sense.

As someone living on this earth, what do you consider to be most precious? If somebody were to ask you this question, I’m sure your answers would vary. Some might say, “Power.” Some would undoubtedly say money, Money is everything.” And others would suggest, “Wisdom or knowledge.” Then are those elements—power, money, knowledge—the most important things in life? If we take time to reflect on this question, we can conclude that there is ultimately no one who will claim these as most precious. What, then, do we hold as most precious? When we look into this question deeply, other thoughts emerge. We soon come to the conclusion that the most precious thing is love; love is the most precious thing in life. And second to love, life itself is most precious. If we have love and life, we need one more thing—an ideal. These three elements, love, life, and an ideal, are not just precious and profound in value, they are the very things that make our lives worth living.

While it may seem like an expression from a fairytale, it is understandable that we need to emphasize the notion of unchanging, unique and eternal love. No one wishes for love to change. Regardless of whether we are teenagers, middle-aged adults, or senior citizens, we all wish for love that is eternal. Also, in the same way, with respect to life, there is no one who wishes to live for a short period of time and then just die. We wish for life to last forever, to be unchanging, uniquely special, and absolute.

The goal of your religions is ultimately for salvation and eternal life. If there were no belief in eternal life, we would not have religion. Religion is necessary because it is through religion that people can strive toward the ideal of love. Thus, love, life and an ideal are the most precious things to us, and we cannot help but strive for eternal life.

Furthermore, we see that the words “love” and “ideal” are without meaning by themselves. Love exists only when there is someone to love and someone to be loved by. In the same way, an ideal is something to be shared with someone. Love and ideals come alive as soon as there is a reciprocal and complementary relationship of giving and receiving established. We are in the object partner position and always need someone to be in the subject partner position. Love and ideals will bud and blossom into full flower only when two elements are in a relationship as subject and object partners.

Are we the cause, the source of the universe, or did someone create us? How can we be the cause of the universe when we do not even create ourselves? It is obvious that we are resultant beings. We are the products of some cause. Therefore, a cause that is in the subject partner position has to exist. There must be a cause for our existence. This subject partner, or cause, then, is the essential reality. We must be as certain of this as we are of our own existence. Whatever name you choose for that cause does not matter. The most important thing is that there is a causal being. And we call that being, “God.”

Let us put our question to God. “What is the most precious thing to you, God?” The reply will be no different from your answer and mine. God will answer, “Love, life and my ideal are the most precious things to me.” Does God need money? God created all things. Everything belongs to God anyway. God does not need money. Does God need power? God is already the source of all power. What about knowledge? God is omniscient and the source of all knowledge. Yes, God is all these things, but God cannot have love, life and the ideal alone. God needs to share, to give and receive with someone in a reciprocal relationship. Even almighty God cannot experience the value of love, life and His ideal when He is alone. That is why God created human beings to be object partners.

Now I shall ask, “Why do we act the way we do?” The answer is simple: because God acts that way. All human traits originate in God. Why are we the way we are? Because God is that way.

We are mirrors reflecting the characteristics of God. God is just like you and me. God is the origin. Therefore, our love comes from the love of God. Our life comes from the life of God, and our ideals come from the ideals of God. We feel these are the most precious things because God felt these were most precious first. God is the subject partner of love, the subject partner of life, and the subject partner of ideals. We are the object partners of love, the object partners of life, and the object partners of ideals. Therefore, if God is absolute, we are to be absolute. If God is unchanging, we are to be unchanging. If God is unique, we are to be unique. If God is everlasting, we are to be everlasting. Our eternal life is not a fantasy. It is reality. Since God is eternal, human beings were created to be eternal. Otherwise, we would not reflect the nature of our eternal God.

Human beings are God incarnate

If there is a God of love, life and ideals, and that God does not manifest all these qualities in human beings as His object partners, then God has defeated the very purpose of creating. God either projected God’s own full value in the object of creation, or created nothing at all. God is the subject partner to human beings, and we are the object partners to God. An object partner is the full reflection of the subject partner. So we are the visible form of God, and God is our invisible form. Subject and object partners are one in essence. God and human beings are one. Human beings are God incarnate. Otherwise, we would not be able to reflect God’s full image. God could not realize joy, the purpose of the creation. When we as object partners are not perfect as God is perfect, we cannot reflect the full love, life and ideal of God. So human beings, the object partners of God, are as important in value as God.

If I made excited gestures and shouted to an empty auditorium, I am sure that anyone who saw me would wonder, “Is that man crazy?” Although if there were someone listening and responding, some object partner there to receive my words, even one small child in front of me, and I poured out my heart and soul to that person, then I would be considered normal. The sole difference is the presence of a person as an object partner.

What I am trying to illustrate is the value of an object partner. As we are the object partners to God, we are placed in a position equal to God. Thus, people share the same value as God and are just as important as God. Even though God is most high, and noble and mighty, God too has to have an object partner. Otherwise God feels no joy. Joy comes when you receive stimulation from the object partner. Not even God can be joyful alone. Please realize that God created us and the universe for joy. However God’s joy remains dormant until God gives and receives with an object partner.

Until now, through Christianity we placed God so high up in heaven, and pushed people so low in hell, that there has been an unbridgeable gap between us. A wide and raging river has separated us from God. We do not dare to reach out to God as a living reality. We have been unable to realize that God is so close, so real, and so approachable, that we can even dwell with God. We are supposed to be the living temples of God. Yet conventional Christianity has been unable to make that a reality.

No matter how wealthy and famous you may be, unless you have someone with whom to give and receive, so that you can share your joy, your sorrow, your opinions and your ideals, you are just a poor person.

We feel joy and sadness because God’s heart can feel joy and sadness. Not until this time in history did we ever believe that God could feel sorrow. And God can feel excitement and indignation, just as we can. We, the object partners of God, have this ability to experience emotion because our subject partner, God, has the same capacity for emotion. God is the first personality, and human personality comes from God. How then can we become true object partners to God? By our efforts and hard work alone? No. There is but one way to come together in oneness with God. That way is through love, through oneness in love with God.

Let me illustrate. Suppose there is a famous man. Opposite him is a woman who is unassuming and meek and without beauty or education. However, once this great man and this humble woman establish a circuit of giving and receiving in love, she will immediately achieve his level of prestige. Let’s say the man’s name is Jones and he falls in love with this woman and marries her. She then becomes Mrs. Jones and returns his love with all her heart. Whatever power, authority and prestige Mr. Jones enjoys, Mrs. Jones would share in every respect. Now, what does this teach us? Once we have a relationship of love with God and become one with God, our value increases instantly to the level of God’s value. And love such as this is everlasting, unchanging and unique.

The alpha and the omega

Now is the time when we have to fulfill this fundamental relationship between God and humankind. The subject and object partners must be one just as cause and effect are one. Therefore, the Bible says, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” (Rev. 22:13) Within God, two are one. God is the beginning and we are the end. He is the first and we are the last. And the relationship between God and humankind is a circuit, because the beginning and the end come together in oneness.

Peace, happiness and joy are the fruits of harmony in love. Therefore, in God’s ideal of creation, the relationship between God and human beings was planned to be one of harmony in love, harmony in life, and harmony in ideal.

Thus we know that God is the subject partner and we are the object partners. We also know that the object partner is just as important as the subject partner. We now want to know precisely what our position as God’s object partner means.

When God created human beings, God gave us wisdom and ambition. Wisdom gives us the power to compare, and ambition gives us the power to strive for the best. If there are two choices before us, A and B, we will automatically compare them to determine which is better. Our human desire leads us to choose, and our ambition does not let us rest until we have attained ultimate fulfillment.

Let me make another analogy. Let’s say there is a most handsome man and most beautiful woman. They are not only attractive, but also all-powerful and all wise. You would be anxious to have some kind of personal relationship with this great man and woman. What would you want it to be? Would you like to be their servant? No, in your heart you know there is a position better than that of servant. Would you like to be their friend? No, you would still not be happy. Would you like to be their adopted child? Will this position bring you complete happiness? No, I don’t think so. You would still crave a closer position. There is one relationship beyond which there is nothing more intimate. That is to become a true son or daughter of this man and woman. With this relationship you will have reached the ultimate fulfillment, and you cannot desire anything more.

Why, then, do we want to become true sons and daughters? It is because that is the position in which we receive this man and woman’s love most fully. There is no closer or deeper relationship in human society than that between the parents and children. Once you have your parents’ love, you possess everything they have. Every joy of the father, all the power of the mother, all their skill, wisdom, ambition and desire will be yours. In receiving the love of a father and mother, there is no procedure; there is no paperwork or ceremony necessary to grant those things to their son and daughter. The parents and children are automatically one. This principle applies throughout humankind, and it applies between God and us.

The true child of God

Then, what kind of relationship would you like to have with God? Would you be content to be just a servant? Or would you prefer to be a friend? Would you rather be an adopted son or daughter, or would you like to find a way to become God’s own child? I know you would be satisfied with nothing short of the ultimate position as sons and daughters of God.

God’s ultimate purpose in His creation of human beings is to give to us all God’s love, life and ideal. You are to occupy the entire love of God, to the depth of His heart. By becoming God’s true sons and daughters your desire will be fulfilled. That is your ultimate destiny. Then you will be saturated with the love of God. You will be filled with joy and feel overwhelmed by a total satisfaction with life.

There is no limit to this joy. True happiness has no end. When you are standing in the love of God, every cell in your body jumps for joy. You breathe in and out with the entire universe. In this state your life is fulfilled. This is how God means for us to live; enraptured in love and joy. And through our joy, God receives joy. The joy of humanity is the joy of God; the joy of God is the joy of humanity.

Early in my life I was called for a mission as God’s instrument. I was called to reveal God’s truth, as God’s prophet. I committed myself unyieldingly to the pursuit of truth, searching the hills and valleys of the spirit world. The time suddenly came upon me when heaven opened up and I was privileged to communicate with Jesus Christ and the living God directly. Since then I have received many astonishing revelations. God told me that the most basic and central truth of the universe is that God is the Parent and we are God’s children. We are all created as children of God. And God said there is nothing closer, nothing deeper, nothing more ultimate than when parent and child are one; one in love, one in life, and one in ideal.

Love, life and the ideal are the central point where parent and child meet. Once we unite, at that point God’s love is our love, God’s ideal is our ideal and God’s life is our life. There is no relationship where you can have the eternal unity of life, love and the ideal other than in the parent-child relationship. This is a fundamental reality of the universe.

How do we come into being in this world? The father and mother become one through their love, and bring together their lives and ideals. Their love precedes our birth. Love is the force that unites. Husband and wife become one in love. This means the husband’s love, life, and ideal become the wife’s, and the wife’s love, life, and ideal become the husband’s. This is the way that two live as one, and two become one flesh. Upon this foundation of oneness in love, a new life can be generated.

When a child is born, that child is the manifestation of the parents’ love, life and ideal. When you look at your own child, you are actually seeing another you. You are looking at the fruit of your love, the fruit of your life, and the fruit of your ideal. You are looking at your second self, another visible form of yourself.

Now let us expand this truth to a universal scale. Man and woman were created as God’s son and daughter. God wanted to be reflected in human beings. Therefore the Bible says, “God created humankind in His image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” (Gen. 1:27)

Humankind is created in the likeness of God. In other words, human beings are God incarnate. Humankind is the mirror of the living God, and God’s every virtue, characteristic and quality is reflected in this mirror. God surely wants human beings to reflect God’s love, life and ideal. We are the fruit of God’s love, life and ideal.

The state of perfection

How wonderful, how simply wonderful it is to live this perfected life of God! This is the true life of joy unequaled by any earthly joy. Once you reach this state of perfection you do not need prayer. Why would you? You meet God face to face and you live heart to heart with Him. You converse with God. You no longer need religion and you do not need a Savior. All the things of religion are part of the mending process, the process of restoration. A person of perfect health does not need a physician. The person in perfect union with God does not need a savior.

Life in union with God is the one great way to live life with God, you living in God and God living in you. This was the spiritual state of Jesus when he said, “Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?” (John 14:10) God and human beings will embrace in one all-consuming love. This is the state where God is made the living reality. You no longer believe; you know. And you live the truth. If you really experience this love in oneness with God, then you have tasted the supreme experience of life. There are probably many Christian leaders among you, yet how many of you have had that wonderful experience, receiving the profound love of God?

God made us to live a life of intoxication. We are meant to live intoxicated by the love of God. Since we lost this original capacity, people seek unnatural, artificial intoxication, getting drunk on alcohol or deadened with drugs. The perfect person, however, is created to be intoxicated in the love of God. There is nothing that can go beyond this feeling of joy. Every cell in your body will explode with joy. Your eyes and ears, the tissues in your face, your arms and legs, everything will be newly alive in a rapture of joy. Nothing else can ever match this quality of joy. This is the plan of God’s original creation. When you say, “Heavenly Father,” do you really have a living and vibrant feeling of God’s presence? Don’t you want to hear God answering, “Yes, my child”?

Here is my gift to you tonight: I want you to realize that the true relationship between God and human beings is that of a subject partner and object partner. You are God’s sons and daughters. Once you have achieved unity with God, nothing can trouble you. Neither sorrow, nor loneliness, or sickness or anything else under the sun can discourage you. God is the ultimate security. You could pay many millions of dollars and still not have that kind of security. It is priceless. No money can buy it. This is the total experience of life. We are meant to live with God.

Your life is therefore the most valuable thing in this universe. That is why Jesus said, “For what will it profit them, if they gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Or what shall they give in return for their life?” (Matt. 16:26) Jesus is talking about life with God. Life without God has the value of a burned-out light bulb. A life without God is death.

Jesus Christ is the one person who lived God’s ideal in its fullest realization. He was the first person of perfection ever to walk the earth, and he came to restore the true relationship between God and humanity. But after Jesus’ crucifixion, Christianity identified him with God. This is why the gap between God and humankind remained. Jesus is a man in whom God is incarnate. But he himself is not God. Paul’s first epistle to Timothy in the Bible says, “For there is one God; there is also one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus, himself human.” (1 Tim. 2:5) The dwelling of God within Jesus was a complete reality. He said, “Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?” (John 14:10) Jesus is, indeed, the only begotten Son of God, yet God does not want Jesus as the only son. All human beings are created to say, “I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” This is everyone’s fully attainable goal.

God’s view of good and evil

Our first step in becoming the true sons and daughters of God is to clearly comprehend God’s view of good and evil. What is goodness and what is evil?

We are not concerned with a man-made definition. God defines the eternal standard of good and evil. The sharp definition of good and evil existed at the time of His creation, long before evil ever came into being in the Garden of Eden. God’s view of good and evil will never change. God is eternal, His law is eternal, and His definition is eternal and unchanging, despite the passage of time.

All of our human traits originate in God. We recognize that there is some human tendency for selfishness. This is natural because at one time God Himself was self-centered. This fact may surprise you, but you must understand that before God created man and the universe, He was completely alone, with no one to care for except Himself. However the very instant that God initiated creation, His full concept of life emerged. God now lives for His counterpart, not for Himself.

What is creation? Creation means nothing more than the Creator, God, projecting Himself into a substantial form. He made Himself incarnate symbolically in the universe, and He made Himself incarnate directly in man. When the spirit takes form, this is creation. God invested Himself in the creation. God’s investment of energy is the creation.

The book of Genesis in the Bible makes creation sound simple and easy. Genesis gives us the impression that God’s creation is accomplished through the magic of His words. God simply says, “Let there be a world” and presto! The world comes into being. Then He says, “Let there be man” and poof! Adam and Eve come into being.

But now it has been revealed that it was not this easy at all. God invested all of Himself in His creation. He did not reserve even one ounce of energy. Creation was His total labor, His total effort of giving all of Himself. When God put His entire heart and soul into the creation of His object, He was investing 100 percent of Himself. Only in this way could He create His second self, the visible God.

Therefore, after His creation, God no longer existed just for Himself. God began existing for His son and daughter, Adam and Eve. He exists to love, He exists to give. God is the totally unselfish existence. God cannot exist alone. “Love” and “ideal” only take on meaning when partners are in complementary relationship. God initiated creation and made an investment He cannot lose. When God poured all of His love, life, and ideal into His second self, in a sense, He had to realize a profit. God knew that when He invested all He had one hundred percent, His object would mature and return to Him many, many times over the fruits of love, life, and His ideal. His object, humankind, is everything to God. The life of the object attracts God. God wants to go and dwell with His object, with humankind.

Let us look at an illustration. Suppose there is a great artist. If he works at random without feeling, he cannot create anything worthwhile. To create the masterpiece of his lifetime, the artist must put all of his heart and soul into his creation. That is the only way for him to come up with a great work of art. If an artist works in this way, his art becomes his life. God is the greatest of all artists. When He created His masterpieces, man and woman, He poured His heart into the process. He poured His soul into it. He poured all of His wisdom and all of His energy into it. God wished only to exist for Adam and Eve, and all mankind. He saved not a single ounce of energy when He created them. In this way, humankind has become the life of God.

Goodness is total giving

God set the pattern for the universe. In the ideal existence we live for others. The subject exists for the object, and the object exists for the subject. God’s definition of goodness is total giving, total service, and absolute unselfishness. We are to live our lives for others. You live for others and others live for you. God lives for man and man lives for God. The husband lives for his wife and the wife lives for her husband. This is goodness. Here unity, harmony, and prosperity abound.

Would you, as a man, be disturbed if I said that you were created for a woman? Perhaps some of you are proud of your masculinity and would not want to hear this. But this is the principle of God’s creation, and you must not be sorry to hear these words. Man lives his life for his partner, not for himself.

Let us assume that one of you ladies is a beauty queen. No matter how beautiful you are, your beauty is not for your own gratification; it is for the delight of men. We are created to live for each other. This is the very reason for our existence; we exist for others, for an object, for a counterpart. This is the principle for all human relationships in our society. Parents exist for their children, and children exist for their parents. Then both parents and children, when they give unselfishly, become united in a circular motion.

This circling motion is the motion of unity. When you give and take, the give and take action creates a circular motion. Circular motion alone can be eternal, because there you will find no end. Therefore, all of God’s creation is based on a pattern of circular movement, since He created for eternity. Even our faces are round, although there is one central vertical line. Our eyeballs are round, and there are upper and lower lips, which make up a round mouth. The sun is round, the moon, the earth, and all heavenly bodies are round. They are each rotating on their own axes and revolving around others. Everything in this universe has complementary give and take action between subject and object. Give and take action occurs between arteries and veins, and so the blood circulates through the body. Human sickness is the state where the balance of give and take action is broken, and normal circulating motion is stopped. Without having this give and take action between subject and object, without abiding by this principle, nothing endures for eternity. All existence that is based upon God’s principle is a good existence.

Then, what is evil? Evil is the emergence of selfishness into this world. God’s principle of unselfish giving was twisted into an ungodly principle of selfish taking. The ungodly position of desiring to be served, rather than to serve, was thereby established. The origin of evil is Satan. He was in the position to serve God, but instead he posed as another god and subjugated man for his own benefit. God is the absolute positive force in this universe. Then Satan posed as another positive force. Two positives naturally repel each other. Satan is a fallen archangel. He left his position as a faithful servant to God and man, and he challenged and competed with God. His motivation was selfishness. Out of his selfishness comes the origin of evil and sin.

What happened is this: Eve fell from her position as God’s first daughter, becoming the first victim of Satan and transforming herself into a creature of selfishness. Together Eve and Satan then successfully brought Adam into their selfish world. Through this tragic event, God was isolated by man in the Garden of Eden. Human history started on the wrong footing, without God. The foundation for the evil history of man was laid, and Satan was established as the ruler of this world. Selfishness came into being at the beginning of history, and now our world is rampant with killing, lying, and stealing. All of these actions in the evil world are motivated by selfishness. Evil subjugated others for its own benefit, while good sacrifices itself for the benefit of others.

Since the fall of man, God’s work has been the restoration of original goodness. God wants to destroy the world of evil and recreate the world of goodness. We have lost our health. We have become sick people. The salvation of God is, therefore, the restoration of man to a healthy state once again.

God sowed the seed of goodness, but before He could gather its fruit, Satan invaded with his evil seed and harvested his evil fruit. For this reason, God must sow the seed of goodness once again. To do this job God needs certain tools. The religions of the world have served as these tools for God. Throughout history, good religions have taught God’s way of life, centered upon sacrificial love and duty. Thus Christianity may be considered the most advanced and progressive religion because it teaches this sacrificial love and duty in supreme form.

Jesus came as a savior, but his teaching was, “The Son of man came not to be served but to serve.” (Matt. 20:28) Jesus taught that the greatest love in this universe is to give one’s life for his enemy. The teaching of the Bible is contrary to the common rule of our worldly society. It is exactly the opposite of the way of this self-centered world. The Bible teaches complete giving and total sacrifice. “He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Matt. 10:39) It seems almost foolish to think seriously about living this way in man’s evil society. However, once you know God’s principle, you discover that there is actually no wisdom greater than this.

You reap as you sow

Jesus Christ’s teachings were hitting the very core of this fundamental truth. The more you give the more you receive. God rewards total giving with total love, and total sacrifice with total life. Giving creates room for God’s love to enter. The more room and the greater the vacuum created by your giving, the faster you will be filled by the flow of God’s love.

To be treated well you must first treat others well. You reap as you sow. Sow evil to reap evil; sow goodness to reap goodness. Your concern should be how to give, and how to give well. As for the return to you, you must trust in God. He will take care of it.

Let us take an illustration of a good man and a bad man. Let us say there is one man who has ten friends. Day in and day out this man is unselfishly serving his ten friends. People cannot help but love this man. He can become the very best friend to ten people. Then his influence will spread to the relatives and friends of those first ten people. By giving and serving unselfishly this man becomes prosperous. He is a center of harmony and unity because he lives God’s principle. Unselfishness brings prosperity. Here is a good man.

But suppose, on the contrary, this man said to his friends, “You ten, bring everything to me; you are here to serve me.” If he spoke this way to his friends three times, everyone would end all connection with him. They would want to have nothing at all to do with him. So he would be left all alone. Isn’t that true, even in our society? It is universally true. A self-centered doctrine, a self-centered philosophy, a self-centered way of life will fling you head over heels down the tragic road of self-destruction. However, if you live your life in service to others, you will find prosperity. It may seem that such a route would lead you to ruin, but it will not. The only reason it may not always bring prosperity to you is because you do not give to the very end. In the middle you suddenly become skeptical. You change your heart or pity yourself, and so you shrink from God’s law of total giving. A good result never materializes. Total giving is the way of prosperity, because it is the way of God.

If any individual sacrifices himself for another individual, he becomes a hero to others. If one family is sacrificial for the well-being of another family, then that family becomes a heroic family among all families. Peoples and nations who sacrifice themselves for the benefit of others become champions of nations. A man who gives his life for his parents is a pious son. A man who gives his life for his king is a loyal subject. And a man who gives his life for all mankind is a saint.

Jesus Christ proclaimed this very truth you are hearing tonight. He strove for the fulfillment of God’s truth on earth. He came not to satisfy his nation’s selfish purpose, but to achieve salvation for the entire world.

God intended the chosen people of Israel to serve as the prepared instrument of the Messiah for his mission of world salvation. The people of Israel did not know this. They conceived of the coming Messiah as an invincible military conqueror who would restore the political empire of King David for the glory of the Jews. How wrong they were!

God’s purpose is not the salvation of any particular man, church, or nation. God’s purpose is to save the whole world. Therefore, the true church would give itself as a sacrifice for the benefit of the world. Yes, true Christians must be willing to sacrifice their own lives for the salvation of the world and all mankind. However, Christian teachings today are self-centered. Christians are seeking their own personal salvation. Christians are crying out for “my salvation” and “my heaven.” This is contrary to God’s truth and contrary to God’s ideal. We must steadfastly give, love, sacrifice, and live for the sake of others.

We must all work for the ideal way of life. I exist for my family, my family exists for our society, our society exists for our nation, our nation exists for the world, the world exists for God, and God exists for you and me, for all mankind. In this great circle of give and take there is harmony, there is unity, and there is an eternal process of increasing prosperity. Furthermore, since in this circuit all existence will fulfill its purpose of creation, there is abundant and profound joy. This is the kingdom of heaven, in which feelings of happiness overflow.

In this world, selfishness ruins everything. Selfishness in the family causes disharmony, which then erupts into bitterness and strife. Everyone wants to be served, instead of serving others. Wives tell their husbands what to do and then seek to be served. Husbands want to be served by their wives. Parents expect service from their children, and the children take their parents for granted. This is demonstrated in our families, in our societies, and in our nations.

In this world today, nations exist solely for their own national interests. They plot, connive, cheat, and lie. They destroy other nations for their own national benefit. Is there even one nation on earth, which pledges to God, “God, you may use this nation as your sacrifice and as your altar, if that is the way you can save the world”? Tell me, where is such a nation? Where?

It is a recognized fact that when America demonstrated the spirit of service and sacrificial duty in the world, and went out of her way to help others in their need, when America gave lives, money, and a helping hand, she enjoyed a golden age. But now America has a selfish attitude. Its domestic problems today are very difficult. America’s situation is chaotic. Today there are greater divisions, more corruption, and graver problems choking this land.

I am not criticizing any people or nation. I am merely proclaiming the heavenly truth that all mankind is seeking.

I started the Unification Church. If this Unification Church exists solely for the benefit of the welfare of the Unification Church itself, then it is doomed to perish. I founded the Church so that I could give my life, my heart, and my soul for the advancement of the salvation of the world. Among this audience there are many members of the Unification Church. Their great desire, their only motivation, is to serve others, to save this nation and the world.

Jesus did not teach his disciples laws of retaliation. He told them, “If anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.” (Matt. 5:39, 41) You never have to retaliate; all you have to do is give completely and totally, and then God will return to you more and more abundantly.

When Jesus was crucified, Roman soldiers pierced him. And Jesus prayed for his enemies, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34) Even at the moment of death on the cross, Jesus was so earnest in forgiving. His very last act was motivated by his love for his enemies. He was the supreme example of a paragon of love. The example of Jesus Christ is the absolute standard for all mankind. Just imagine an entire nation composed of men like Jesus. What would you call it? The kingdom of heaven on earth; it could be nothing less.

Jesus Christ was lord over all life because of his unparalleled form of loving, giving, and sacrifice. He will remain the Lord forever. In the same way, no one in this universe surpasses the total giving and loving of God. So God is God forever. He reigns over all creation.

Look at the decline of Rome. The entire Roman Empire collapsed in front of an army with no weapons, the army of Jesus Christ. By what means did the Christians conquer Rome? They conquered by love, sacrifice, and total giving, up to the cost of their very lives. History is a witness that no empire can withstand the army of sacrificial love. And this history shall be repeated.

Up to now in our lives we did not know clearly the definition of good and evil. We could not be certain where to commit ourselves, when to act, what to serve. This has been the source of the greatest confusion in human lives. We must not become Christians who merely crave their own wellbeing. As Christians, we must live the life of Jesus and give ourselves totally for the benefit of others, so that others might have life. This is God’s way.

This present world is evoking the wrath of God. It truly deserves His uncompromising judgment. But God is love, and He is long-suffering. God is suppressing His anger because He wants to save us. He is giving us a chance to change. He is waiting.

I know that Western culture is characterized by individualism. However, selfish individualism is doomed. Sacrificial individualism will blossom. Individuality in itself is good. God gave each one of us a unique way to serve. But individualism without God can only build castles of sand.

The quiet revolution

I can see a great change, a great new surge of revolution coming to America— not by fire, not by bullets, but by God’s truth kindling a revolution in men’s hearts. I have come here to ignite this spiritual revolution. I do not need to demonstrate in front of the White House or in Lafayette Square. The answer does not lie there, but in the hearts of men, in the quiet revolution from selfishness to unselfishness.

Can you imagine how wonderful the ideal society will be? Individuals will belong to their families, the family will belong to the society, the society will belong to the nation, the nation will belong to the world, the world will belong to God, and God will belong to you. He who gives the most will know God most deeply.

Some young people might say to me, “Rev. Moon, you are coming here repeating the same old stuff!’ But that is not at all true. I am speaking, not from theory, but from life. I am telling you that we are all here to live the truth, as Jesus lived the truth. This is not a theory, a philosophy, or a theological doctrine. It is the ultimate truth of God—not to be talked about, but to be lived. When man makes this truth live, it is going to bring about the greatest change upon the face of the earth. Although in one sense you know the truth of the things I have been saying, still nobody truly believes them. Since nobody believes the truth, nobody ever lives it. This truth is as old as God, yet as new as the twenty-first century. You must live the truth. If the revelation of the Divine Principle has made this age-old truth real in your heart, then you have in effect discovered a brand-new truth. The Divine Principle is touching the hearts of millions of young people, showing them the way to our very real God. People throughout the world are learning that God is absolute and perfect, and the perfect God demands perfect human beings as His object. Jesus said, “You, therefore, must be perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matt. 5:48) He is dearly indicating that our standard of value is the perfection of our Heavenly Father. Otherwise we cannot be God’s objects and God cannot accept us.

All of us want to be perfect. All of us want heaven on earth, but we ask, “How can it be done?”

We wonder if it is at all possible for man to be perfect. Some contend, with apparent justification, that all one has to do is merely look at man to see the gross error of such an aspiration. We point to the sin and suffering inherent in all things, even in the things that are most holy. We say, “Only God is perfect.” However, when we fully comprehend the design for man in God’s concept of creation, we will understand that perfection is within our grasp.

In God’s ideal of creation we were designed as temples of God, temples of the spirit of God, where God is master. “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s spirit dwells in you?” (1 Cor. 3:16)We were designed to be God’s temples. When we attain this status, we shall cease to possess a will that is corruptible. Limitations or laws will no longer be necessary, for His will is our will. With His spirit dwelling in us completely we shall move only as He dictates. We shall then be perfect, because the force that is guiding and directing us is the perfect force.

When man achieves this ultimate goal he is in perfect union with God. He is no longer living on the human level alone, but on the God-like level. He takes on God’s qualities because the Spirit dwells in and possesses him as a perfect temple; he reflects God’s virtue and power. Thus man can be as perfect as Heavenly Father is perfect. This was the original pattern, which God intended for humankind through Adam.

Marriage is the most important means of establishing God’s kingdom on earth. Adam and Eve were God’s first children. They were born of God, grew up in God, and would have matured into perfection in God. God intended to make Adam and Eve one in heavenly matrimony. Then they would have borne sinless children and become the true mother and father for all mankind. They would have been the first “king” and “queen,” establishing the heavenly kingdom on earth.

Has such a kingdom ever existed? No. Instead, history started in the wrong direction. From the evil first step, Satan has been the god of this world. It has, therefore, been God’s purpose of restoration, His purpose of salvation, to restore the perfected nation so that He can truly have His kingdom upon the earth. For this God needs a model. Who can set the criteria of perfection on this earth? To meet this need the Messiah comes.

Jesus Christ came as the Messiah. He was to be the model of perfection upon every level: the individual, family, tribal, national, and worldwide levels. He came to establish a perfect world in his lifetime, not over a period of centuries.

Before God sent His champion Jesus Christ, He prepared the field with the chosen people of Israel. They were the foundation for the Messiah’s coming. The people of Israel could have perfected themselves and their nation if they had united with the coming of the Lord. The kingdom of God would have been a physical reality at that time.

The mission of Jesus

However, his people did not accept Jesus. Instead of welcome, he met rejection at every level. Jesus was denied the opportunity to take a bride in the position of restored Eve, and to establish the first Godcentered heavenly family. Instead, the people of Israel nailed him to the cross. Read 1 Cor. 2:8: “None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” In this way, the mission of Jesus Christ was left undone on earth.

The history of God’s providence is a very sad story. To comfort the heart of God and fulfill His work, we must clearly understand His process of restoration.

When God created man, He placed Adam and Eve, man and woman, in the Garden of Eden. They both united with Satan and became sinful, thereby leaving God isolated. In the process of restoration, God must restore both Adam and Eve. Jesus came as the sinless Adam, or perfected Adam. His first mission was, therefore, to restore his bride and form the first family of God. All fallen generations would have been grafted onto him as the true olive tree. God-centered families, tribes, and nations would have been restored in this way. Perfection would have reigned. The sinless state of God’s kingdom could have been a reality for the last two thousand years. This is why 1 Cor. 15:45 says Jesus is the “last Adam,” the second Adam.

Jesus came, but he was crucified. He was not given the chance to restore his bride. This is why Jesus promised his second coming. Jesus Christ must come again to consummate the mission he left undone two thousand years ago. Let me repeat: Jesus was a man, not God Himself. When he returns to earth he will come as a man in the position of the third Adam.

Let us understand more fully the significance of these revelations in the book of Revelations, where there is the prophecy of the marriage of the Lamb. God intended Adam and Eve to come together in heavenly matrimony in the Garden of Eden. Since it was not realized at that time, God intended Jesus to fulfill this marriage in his time. However, it was not realized by Jesus either because of the faithlessness of the chosen people.

Jesus was the second Adam. It was God’s Will for him to be blessed in heavenly matrimony with the second Eve, his restored bride. They would have become the True Parents for mankind. In this way all mankind would have found life by grafting onto them.

Jesus cautioned the people, “You are of your father the devil.” (John 8:44) Because of the beginning point of human history, we were born as Satan’s children. Through the restoration of True Parents we will be reborn as children of our Heavenly Father, God, with full salvation.

God’s Will was denied fulfillment in Jesus’ time. That is why he is coming again as the third Adam. The marriage supper of the Lamb will take place. True Parents for all mankind will be realized in our time. God will bring forth His true family upon the face of the earth. All people will be made new through their True Parents. All will be made capable of bringing sinless children into the world. This will be done when Jesus Christ reappears. The kingdom of heaven on earth will then begin. This will be the day when the dwelling of God is with men. God will be full of joy. His own son, as perfected third Adam, will initiate an entirely new history upon the earth. On that day, we shall become living images of God. God will bring His kingdom on earth.

I pledge to you from the bottom of my heart that the realization of all this is at hand, in the fullness of God’s time. The ultimate realization of this ideal has been the hope of God, as well as the hope of humanity.

Thank you very much for your attentive listening. You have been a most gracious audience. Thank you.

America in God's Providence

Sun Myung Moon
October 1973

Sun Myung Moon - circa November 24, 1970

There will be no prosperous or peaceful world until people can sacrifice themselves for the benefit of all mankind. But there is no such nation sacrificing itself. Therefore, religion must sacrifice itself for the sake of God. That way God's ideal of one world can be reached. Religion in America must sacrifice all that it has to save America. That religion should not fight to multiply itself but should work to save the nation, sacrificing its own churches. If it works with such spirit, then that nation will eventually unite with that religion.

When this religion and its nation unite they will go forward to save the whole world, sacrificing themselves. For that position, the United States is the representative nation of the democratic world.

God purposed the United States to fulfill the mission of the sacrificial nation. Therefore, God sent to this land the Pilgrims, who risked everything and made such a great country in such a short period of time.

When the Pilgrims came to this country, they built first churches, then schools, and finally they built their own houses. The backbone of America's prosperity, the root of the development of the United States into a great nation, is the spirit which puts greater stress on the public purpose rather than the private purpose.

Nation must sacrifice for the World

The most important thing for any nation is that she sacrifice all things for the world and all mankind. From such a nation will come out a system developed from Jesus himself. The future ideal world will begin from there. That nation will sacrifice her sovereignty for the benefit of the whole world.

The United States is far away from this position. The individual and individualism are good in balance, but if too much stress is put upon that way of thinking, everything collective and virtuous is lost the love of the nation, the brotherhood of the people, the family integrity, the relationship between parents and children- and finally even the value of individuals themselves. If all things are levelled, you become like hawks and blow where the wind blows. That is the reason there is no peace.

For America to stand in accordance with the providence of God there must be a new movement in America. Americans as individuals and America as a nation must follow the spirit of God and the truth of Jesus Christ and make this nation a foundation for the expression of God's ideal.

Where do we find such a new movement of spirit? I think there are many churches in America vacant or just attended by old people. There is no fire and no traditional spirit. That means that God has left these churches, and Jesus Christ has abandoned them. Through these churches the providence of God cannot be dispersed.

The church must find individuals that will sacrifice themselves for their families, sacrifice their families for the American nation, and sacrifice the United States for the world. The ideal that can lead the whole world must come from the spirit of sacrifice for the greater cause. For the benefit of the whole world, one nation must really give herself to pursue the one ideal world.

God is the God who has no nation which He can love. God is the One who has no family, no tribe, no individual whom He can love. Two thousand years ago, God sought such an individual, Jesus Christ. With him, with the tribe of the Israelites, and with the nation of Judah, He wished to establish a nation He could love.

But that nation looked after its own benefits, rather than seeking the good of the whole world. Therefore, the providence of God was spent, and He couldn't complete the restoration through His son. The people of Israel were devout believers in God. But they didn't think about God's will more than their own individual things, their own family things, their own tribal things, and their own national things. That's the reason why they could not understand Jesus.

God chose America as a nation playing the role of John the Baptist, and also the churches in America to play the role of preparing the way for the Lord to come. But America and her churches are thinking of their own benefits more than God's purpose. From God's viewpoint, if America cannot fulfill her mission, God must search for another nation.

Hope for America

So all the members of the Unification Church must sacrifice themselves, their families, their friends, and even the Unification Church itself, to establish such a nation which God can love.

America must go to the underdeveloped countries and the underdeveloped countries must follow America. In that way the whole world can survive and be united, even eternally.

In the center of that unity, God dwells. Then one peaceful, ideal world can exist.